Hi. I’m Lauren.

I am a general assignment reporter and culture editor for WGLT, an award-winning NPR member station in Bloomington-Normal, IL. In addition to curating arts and culture coverage and hosting the flagship newsmagazine Sound Ideas, I regular report on breaking news, courts and crime, health and education, among other topics.

In 2025, a three-part series on how orders of protection are enforced in McLean County won a national Edward R. Murrow prize for investigative reporting.

I am also a freelance culture critic, reviewing dance for the Chicago Tribune and contributing to Dance Magazine, Chicago Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and Milwaukee Magazine.

I wrote about dance for almost a decade at See Chicago Dance, serving as its editor from 2018-2021, and was previously the dance columnist for the Windy City Times. While at SCD, I co-facilitated tricontinental dance writing intensives in partnership with the JOMBA! Festival in Durban, South Africa. I completed writing residencies at the Bates Dance Festival, the National Center for Choreography and Trillium Arts and served on numerous panel discussions, moderating talks for Bates Dance Festival, Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Mandala South Asian Performing Arts and Dance/USA, among others.

I trained at Barat College and hold degrees in dance and kinesiology from Columbia College Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. I never finished my PhD.

I moved into journalism full time in 2023 after nearly 20 years juggling parallel careers in media, arts administration and higher education.

I was born in California and raised in Illinois. I like the seasons and have come to appreciate the flat, Midwest landscape. I attempt gardening. And I kindly request a seat on the aisle.