Lauren Gardner

Lauren Gardner has a diverse and extensive work experience. Lauren currently serves as the Executive Director of Open Source Collective, a non-profit organization that supports over 3,000 open source projects. Prior to this, they were the Head of Operations at the same company.

Lauren has also held leadership roles at various organizations. Lauren was the Director of Babycastles, a non-profit collective focused on independent games and creative technology. Lauren successfully led the organization to its first profitable year and managed its financial and fundraising efforts.

Additionally, Lauren worked as the Workplace Skills and Education Program Manager at Bantam Tools, where they developed an education initiative and secured funding for an internal employee training program. Lauren was also a Partner at the School For Poetic Computation, responsible for budgeting and fiscal planning.

Prior to these roles, Lauren served as the Associate Director for Education at Eyebeam, where they developed education programming and secured funding for various initiatives. Lauren worked as a Freelance Arts Residency Organizer at ThoughtWorks, Head of Product at Reuters.com, and Product Manager at CNNMoney. Lauren began their career as a Technical Product Manager at Turner Broadcasting and Operative.

Lauren's expertise lies in program management, education initiatives, budgeting, and fundraising.

Lauren Gardner earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree with a specialization in Production for Radio/TV/Film from Sam Houston State University, where they studied from 1992 to 1995. Lauren later attended the altMBA program in 2018 and the School for Poetic Computation in 2014.