Director of Development
Lauren joined the staff of Grymes as the fourth grade teacher in 2005 . She grew up in Michigan, Vermont, and Wichita, Kansas where her parents and younger sister still reside. She graduated from the International Baccalaureate Program in Wichita in 2000 and went on to spend her first year of college at the University of Kansas. There she focused on French and Italian studies. After her first year, she traveled to Italy to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer teaching English privately to twelve students. She chose to remain in Italy and enroll as the only American in the Universita degli Studi di Milano in Milan for her second year where she took courses in international relations and art history. Lauren also developed her own language curriculum as she taught French and English to students ranging in age from 5 to 65. She later transferred to the University of Virginia where she graduated with a distinguished major in Italian in 2005. Considering a PhD in Italian and working as a substitute teacher in the Albemarle County public schools, Lauren soon realized that she was a teacher at heart.
She was immediately inspired by the teachers at Grymes and happy to have the opportunity to work with the creative freedom that the Grymes curriculum affords its teachers. She spent four years in the fourth grade classroom, and moved to the development office in 2009. She is delighted to get to support a school that fosters such creativity and compassion in both students and teachers alike. Aside from working at Grymes, Lauren loves traveling, dogs, cardmaking, and the outdoors. She taught rock climbing at UVA and continues to enjoy climbing whenever she can. She lives at Woodberry Forest School with her husband, William and her yellow Labrador retriever, Milo.