Hi! I’m Lauryn.

I have over 15 years of experience in content design & strategy, journalism, and public health. (Three cheers for ziggy-zaggy career paths, amiright?)

My professional mission is to make health and healthcare more accessible and inclusive—and good content design, participatory research, and systems thinking are some of my favorite tools in my tool kit.

If you are looking for content design or content strategy with a public health perspective, you can contact me for rates and availability.

Here’s a bit more about my professional work experience:

Content design & strategy

I currently lead the content design practice at a US-based health tech company. There, I’m able to blend my background in public health with my passion for working with our users to craft content that is engaging, accessible, and actionable for the people who need it.

I’ve led the development of our style guide, created a consortium of content creators from every corner of the organization to align on our growing ecosystem, and built protocols around content requests, execution, critiques, and testing.

Prior to moving to health tech, I lead content strategy at an international human-centered research and design organization. Since we focused on adolescent health issues, I worked with young people around the world to co-create programs and products and services that met their needs, expectations, and desires. Some of my favorite projects include:

  • Leading design research workshops with young people in El Salvador to unearth the potential for pleasure-based sex education programs

  • Facilitated content approval sessions with community members, government officials, and funders in Rwanda to test key messaging, gain approval for our school-based sexual & reproductive health program, and build coalitions for continued support

  • Managing the logistical and technical support for a virtual conference that highlighted the innovations of youth-facing HIV organizations in Kenya

  • Creating a comprehensive content strategy for young men, women, and parents to increase awareness and understanding around menstrual health and then supporting teams in Ethiopia and India to prototype our unique curricula

Before pivoting towards content design and public health, I worked in the outdoor industry as the director of marketing for the world's largest indoor climbing gym company. I built a corporate communications team from the ground up, developed marketing, social media, and content strategies for nine unique locations, and spoke at national conferences.

Public health practitioner

I got my master's degree in public health at Boston University, where I focused on health promotion and sexual & reproductive health.

As a public health practitioner, I’ve worked with clients and organizations including M+R, the American Heart Association, the Center for Disease Philanthropy, and the Public Health Institute. Some major projects that I'm proud of include:

  • Leading qualitative research to assess disaster preparedness to create health communications campaigns for patients with Type 2 diabetes impacted by natural disasters

  • Conducting key informant interviews with community partners for the American Heart Association to understand and improve authentic engagement with local partners and strengthen their coalitions

  • Launching a podcast to explore people’s experiences with sex ed, demystify the topic, and advocate for more comprehensive and accessible programming.

Journalism

I always wanted to be a journalist foreign corespondent because I am endlessly curious to learn about other people and I wanted to help share their stories with the world. I studied broadcast journalism and international relations at Chapman University, and have been a freelance writer ever since.

My proudest project was supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and brought me to El Salvador in 2017 to write about sex education and abortion policy in the wake of the Zika crisis. My articles have been published by the Pulitzer Center and I’ve shared my work with student journalists and conferences in Washington D.C.

I also helped to develop a Journalism Braintrust through the Berkeley Media Studies Group build relationships between public health advocates and the media in California.

In my free time

When I’m not working, you’ll find my rock climbing in Yosemite, road tripping with friends, booking my next international adventure, or futzing around with watercolors to keep my hands busy.