The Riekes Center for Human Enhancement

Lauren is a peacemaker, dedicated to healing within herself, others, our human cultures and throughout the natural world. She knows life is all about relationships and practices constantly returning to center and remembering that nature is the teacher and the earth is borrowed from future generations. She was born and raised in Northeastern Ohio, where she learned about the cycles of life and death and so many other things, throughout 18 years of four seasons. Her curiosity for the natural world and great mystery was fed with regular excursions in the deciduous woods, babbling brooks, lakes, thick marshes, fields and farms. Arriving in the Bay Area in 1999, Lauren was wary of the lack of water, but immediately fell in love with the rolling, oak-dotted foothills, coastal mountains, and vast Pacific, all of which she regularly visits to listen, wander, track, practice skills and learn.

Lauren is equally curious about health and relationships within the natural world and in our human cultures. She has been a part of and facilitated race relations dialogues, various campaigns for environmental groups, creative collaborations at large scales, and spiritual reflection retreats. She has a BA and MS from Stanford University - where she studied green building and construction management and taught courses on natural building and sustainable habits, and spent the last three years working as a project engineer and green building coordinator for a local general contractor. Last year, she was immersed in the art of mentoring with the Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness program. In addition to sharing time with preteen and teen Riekes youth, Lauren currently consults and works on green building and permaculture design projects, practices bodywork, develops site-specific theater, sings with her church choir, and is planning her wedding.