Lauren Hall Riggins

Lauren Hall Riggins has worked in education, non-profit leadership, and policy and advocacy research for over a decade. She has earned three masters degrees in education, public affairs, and arts administration. She is currently a doctoral candidate writing her dissertation on centering youth perspectives in creating educational experiences that lead to economic mobility and increased civic engagement. She holds a deep conviction that education is a vital tool for addressing generational poverty and systemic racism.

Hall Riggins has worked with pre-kindergarten through post-secondary students, and has coached and supported teachers spanning these grades for five years. She launched an Early Childhood Education program and helped lead the Mid-North Promise Program, which is a cradle-to-career program that supports families with economic mobility and holistic wellness. She co-founded a non-profit in 2013 and oversaw its successful merger with a mission-aligned organization in 2017 to provide a more catalytic, sustainable impact for Indiana youth and families. She worked in development for three years with Teach For America Indianapolis and managed a portfolio of $3.1 million. Additionally, Hall Riggins has served as a grant reviewer and panelist for the Indiana Arts Commission; reviewed films for the Heartland International Film Festival; and served as a judge for the National Youth Poet Laureate competition.

She currently leads the Indiana Youth Poet Laureate program, an affiliate of the National Youth Poet Laureate program, and is passionate about leveraging the literary arts to advance healing, cross-cultural understanding, justice, and joy. Lauren proudly, humbly boasts that her student since 2013 has just earned the 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate title, thereby becoming the first (but not the last!) National YPL from Hall Riggins' home state of Indiana.