Lauren Bean Buitta

Girl Security’s mission is to empower girls, young women, and gender minority youth from underrepresented communities with the skills, experiences, networks, and support to pursue national security careers, which lead to job sustainability and greater societal impact. As part of our pathways approach, we work to advance girls’ and women’s voices on national security issues with gendered impacts. Our vision is to build a diverse national security workforce of women who can lead responsible and equitable security outcomes for the United States and a global community.

Prior to founding Girl Security, Lauren served as a management consultant, providing strategic and analytical support to clients on local policy issues, including exclusionary land use policies and racial segregation in Chicago for over a decade. From 2002-2007, Lauren served as a national security policy analyst with a Chicago-based think tank, where she specialized in national security law. 

In 2022, Lauren was named "One of the Most Influential People in Security" by Security Magazine. She was named "One of 50 Women Making the World a Better Place" by Instyle Magazine in 2021 and awarded the 21st Century Leader Award by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Lauren is a former Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2003), Truman National Security Project (2006), American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security (2012) and a former Emerging Leader with Chicago Council on Global Affairs (2017).

Lauren is mom to two amazing kids. Lauren earned her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and her B.A. from Boston College.