Guest Speaker

Lauren Maxwell is a writer, musician, and creative captivated by the stories that shape us. She is currently a Master of Divinity candidate at Yale Divinity School, where she studies art, theology, and spiritual care. Her interest in the work of love and repair led her to Yale, where she engages in advocacy, works in restorative practices, studies writing and literature, thinks about moral responses to public crises, and facilitates a Chaplaincy Circle for future spiritual leaders. For a summer, she supported Faith for Earth, the United Nations Environment Programme’s interfaith organizing wing.

Committed to the vital work of connection, Lauren believes that creating a more generous, loving social fabric is not only possible, but critical to our wellbeing and survival. No matter the medium, her work reaches towards asking big questions, mending fractures in communities, and considering the pressing issues of our time. To undergird her work, Lauren is invigorated by the role beauty and pleasure play in animating our experience.

Prior to Yale, Lauren had a varied career, leading communications for both boutique and multinational corporations before leaving to study embodiment practices, connect people to stories at Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, and become a student again.

As a writer, Lauren has had essays published in Catapult, Glamour, Bustle, Stylist, The Dirty Spoon, and Restless Magazine. Always a singer, her experience as a musician informs everything she does. Lauren holds two degrees in voice and enjoys thinking about dynamic futures for classical music with her husband John Young Shik Concklin.