< Meet Our Staff

Lauren Ballard, Education Specialist
Email: [email protected] 
Phone: 828-691-5030

Lauren Ballard joined S²TEM Centers SC in 2022 as an Education Specialist. Lauren is currently working on mapping STEM Education assets with Geographic Information Systems across South Carolina. Lauren also assists in volunteering opportunities, data analytics, and outreach.  She is incredibly grateful to be a part of this community of professionals, experts, and educators who are working to change the world.

Before this position, she served as a GIS Analyst at a civil engineering company and as a Conservation Specialist at Ducks Unlimited. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Geospatial and Environmental Informatics from Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment in 2021. Since 2017, she has worked with Destination SPACE, a non-profit that provides STEM opportunities for students across the United States. A notable project she has worked on includes the Team Miles 6-unit Cube Satellite that will launch on the Artemis-1 Mission. She is also a NASA Thin-Satellite Program participant, with the satellite having launched in April 2019 on the Northop Grumman resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, she has always had a passion for conservation, the environment, and STEM Education. Graduating in the inaugural class from Western North Carolina’s first STEM high school, the Nesbitt Discovery Academy, she realized her passion for helping students pursue their own goals in STEM.  As a member of South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics and Science, she hopes to give back to the next generation by combining her experience and education to help provide once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for students across South Carolina.