Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m a product designer, creative director, and creative technologist interested in the intersection of physical environments and technology.

I started my career in games at the MIT Game Lab, and went on to work across concept art, environment art, 3D, VFX, and technical production. That work taught me to think spatially and systemically. I later worked at Meow Wolf, where I led XR and emerging-technology projects that combined physical environments, live performance, and digital interaction, and at Apple’s Technology Development Group, where I prototyped future spatial-computing experiences in the early days of the Vision Pro.

In 2021, I co-founded Refract Studio. At Refract, I lead product strategy, interaction design, creative direction, and clinical workflow research, working closely with engineering from early prototypes through production. Our work has ranged from large-scale public technology projects and immersive installations to computer vision platforms for surgical sterile processing.

Recently, healthcare has become a major focus of my work. I have been taking nursing courses, and have spent hundreds of hours in clinical environments, studying the systems I’m designing for from inside them. That experience has changed how I think about product design significantly. I’m particularly interested in tools for allied health, and healthcare team members who are often overlooked when we think about technology.

Outside of technology, I paint landscapes and keep a field sketching practice. I was an Artist in Residence at Big Bend National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and I teach interpretive painting programs with Park Rangers at Santa Fe Open Space. Painting is a different part of my practice but it comes from the same desire I have in my other work to respond to an environment, whether thats painting a landscape or designing for an operating room.