Lauren is a Training and Technical Assistance Liaison for the VCU National Training and Data Center and brings with her over 12 years’ experience within the field of benefits and work incentives counseling.

Prior to joining the NTDC, Lauren served as the Program Director for the Maryland Benefits Counseling Network where she provided Social Security and state-specific benefits and work incentives training and technical assistance to supported employment and Vocational Rehabilitation professionals and other advocates statewide; including a cohort of 19 certified work incentives counselors employed within the state Public Behavioral Health System. She was also responsible for the implementation and oversight of a discharge initiative project tasked with addressing major benefit-related barriers to discharge from Maryland State psychiatric hospitals and facilitating a timely transition of patients back into the community. Lauren has previous experience working as a CWIC/CPWIC through several Employment Networks under Social Security’s Ticket to Work program and WIPA programs and served as a benefits counseling vendor to the state VR agency. In these roles she provided direct instruction and consultation to hundreds of Social Security disability beneficiaries and Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE) program participants. She is a 2008 graduate of Salisbury University.