Lauren is a climatetech professional, classically-trained musician, and life-long learner. At the US Department of Energy, she designed and managed funding programs for accelerating climatetech startups, deploying $15M over two years and building the groundwork for recurring public investments into the US climate innovation ecosystem. She also launched EnergyTech UP, a new recurring program to cultivate the next generation of energy professionals. Recently, her white paper on sustainable aviation influenced policy released by the Biden White House and new efficiency requirements under consideration by the FAA. Thanks to Lauren’s work, eliminating lead exposure (a huge public health problem) from aviation fuels is now a federal priority.

In the past, Lauren served as Vice President of Engineering at Sunforge, an early pioneer in MPPT charge controllers for off-grid solar applications. Her background also includes automation engineering for the biotech industry (she helped build one of the first manufacturing lines for engineered tissues) and research in organic photovoltaics. She received her B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Duke University.

Lauren loves meeting new friends, stumbling upon live music in the street, biking in the sunshine, eating at plant-based restaurants, exploring new places (including their cultures and languages), having deep introspective conversations, and generally experiencing as much of life as possible. She aspires to make everyone feel included, master the Cantonese language, and develop a practice of writing publicly.