Lauren Hanley is a current third year medical student at VCU School of Medicine. She was born and raised in Richmond, VA, but has found a new love for the city while going to school at VCU. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science with a concentration in Neuroscience. During her time at UVA she conducted research looking into cellular changes in the brains of transgenic mice with Alzheimer's Disease. After taking gap years to work at the UVA hospital and completing the VCU certification program, she lived in Charleston, SC for a year before starting medical school where she worked part time as a coffee shop barista and part time in the pediatric cardiology ICU at the Medical University of South Carolina. From her time out in the field before medical school and throughout her training now, she has come to appreciate the critical role physicians have in the community. She plans to specialize in pediatrics and hopes that learning about and conducting research in the relationship between human trafficking and the healthcare system will help her give back and make better her beloved home of Richmond, VA and beyond.
