Lauren grew up in Northwest Indiana, as one of four children to her parents, Jeffrey Sivak and Yolonda Galvan.

After graduating from Purdue University with a double major in English Education and Theater, Lauren moved to Chicago to pursue a career in Arts Education. Her work in Chicago classrooms across the city gave her a front row seat at some of Chicago’s greatest inequities, from classrooms to storefronts theaters.

Lauren was a member of former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Arts & Culture transition committee where she advocated for the end of unpaid internship programs at major cultural institutions (read her position paper here). She also served on the Human Relations Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Issues from 2020 - 2022.

Lauren currently lives in Tulsa, OK with her wife, Erin, and their four cats Miranda (PAWS Chicago), Dottie (Tulsa SPCA), and mother/daughter duo Shiv and Kit (Animal Aid of Tulsa). She is the Executive Director of The Opp Project, Tulsa’s Expanded Learning Intermediary, a volunteer at the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, and a board member with The Kedzie Center, a clinic in Chicago providing accessible, culturally-informed quality mental health care.