Lauren Allen
“I have had such a wonderful journey and experience at Hopkins. I’ve had the best mentors who have been just so supportive of me all along the way and in all of the domains of this journey.”
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Health Care Management & Leadership, DrPH 2021
Operations Director, Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Lauren‘s Podcast Episode
In this episode, we discuss Lauren’s work as the operations director of the Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her experience pursuing the practice-oriented DrPH while remaining a full-time professional, and her advice for getting into the operations and coordination side of clinical research.
Learn More About Lauren‘s Story
I grew up listening to my grandmother, a second-generation Lithuanian immigrant, tell stories about her undergraduate education. Her bachelor’s was conferred in 1946, a double degree from the Peabody Conservatory and Johns Hopkins University. She had to take classes at night, the only time women were allowed on campus. Well into her 80’s, she attended her class reunions, kept her Hopkins alumna badge in her pocket, and frequently rode the Hopkins shuttle from her apartment near Homewood to the Arts District where she’d see a movie at the Charles Theater. I have her 50-year alumna medal sitting on my desk. Her daughter, my mother, followed in her footsteps and received her master’s degree from the JHU School of Education. I treasure my Hopkins degree, in part, because they treasured theirs. I don’t know if my daughter will continue the Hopkins legacy, but she will know the privilege and possibility that a Hopkins education unlocked for our family.
My most significant doctoral degree milestones were punctuated by new motherhood. I completed my Comprehensive Exam in 2015 while in the throes of 1st trimester morning sickness with my daughter. In 2017, I found out I was pregnant with my son the day I completed my School-Wide Preliminary Oral Exam. I wrote my dissertation while parenting two toddlers. I attended graduation, virtually, with them sitting (and squirming) on my lap; a small silver lining of the COVID pandemic. My daughter Sydney is now seven and in first grade. My son Spencer is now five and in pre-kindergarten. They frustrate and delight me in a thousand ways, every single day, as they should. There were times when it was quite challenging, to be on parallel journeys, and there was so much joy and self-discovery, too. I can’t say that I “couldn’t have done it without them”. I could have, and much faster and with more sleep. But it wouldn’t have been half as fun or meaningful.
