Lauren is the founding director of Legacy GardenWorks. She credits her education (B.A. in Chemistry from Seattle Pacific University), and fascination with the work of the Food Project in Boston and a similar project in Seattle, with igniting her interest in urban gardening. She is a self-taught gardener and describes herself as an “unapologetic plant nerd”. Lauren moved back to Wichita in 2011 and founded GardenWorks in 2013. Her wide-ranging interests include fermentation, mushroom cultivation, foraging edible weeds, and the intersection of gardening and mental health. “I plan to pursue a masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and am excited to see how this informs my work at Legacy”.