Biography
As of: 02-21-2010

Laura Lorenz is a researcher and educator with international experience communicating research, program, and policy impacts for global audiences. She holds a joint appointment at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA: as senior research associate in the Institute for Behavioral Health and as program manager for Executive Education, a continuing education program that provides leadership training in health policy and management for rising clinical leaders—surgeons, physicians, and nurses. Since 2004, Dr. Lorenz has been investigating lived experience with brain injury and psychological health using innovative methods (participatory visual methods and narrative analysis) with civilian and now military service populations. She became interested in brain injury because her brother, who was a youth hockey player in the 1960s and 70s, had multiple concussions on and off the ice and suffered cognitive and mental health challenges—perhaps as a result. Before coming to Brandeis, Dr. Lorenz worked for more than 20 years in international development as a photojournalist, writer, editor, and educator for agencies such as UNICEF, World Food Programme, and the US Agency for International Development. She spent 14 years living and working in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and her assignments often involved encouraging community partnerships, project replication, and behavior change—for example, to improve girls’ access to education and prevent transmission of HIV. Since 2001 she has pioneered the use of participatory visual research methods (including “photovoice”) in the US and South Africa to engage patients, youth, and communities in picturing local problems and strengths and motivating action for change. Much of her research since 2004 has focused on health policy, in particular including the perspectives of patients on their health and healthcare experiences in the policy-making process. Dr. Lorenz has published on identity after brain injury, the patient-provider relationship, issues of voice and representation in health policy research, and the use of visual research methods to involve communities in public health. She regularly presents on these topics at conferences and hospitals, and in community settings. Her book Brain Injury Survivors: Narratives of Rehabilitation and Healing is forthcoming (April 2010) with Lynne Rienner Publishers under their series Disability in Society. Dr. Lorenz received her PhD in social policy in 2008 from Brandeis University (The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis) and a Master of Education (Instructional Design/Adult Education) from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2001. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Bowdoin College.

View Laura's Curriculum Vitae for more detailed information. Please feel free to visit the other portions of the site listed below here as well, view more information about her work and what she is doing now.