Lauren Bruggemans is the Director of Sustainability & Community Engagement at Visit Greater Palm Springs, where she leads their sustainability, diversity, equity & inclusion, and workforce development strategy and projects. Lauren has 16+ years of hospitality and management experience, starting her career in hospitality operations managing teams across multiple divisions. In 2015, she become the Executive Director of the Sumba Hospitality Foundation, a social enterprise and workforce development program in Eastern Indonesia that won an award for Innovation from the UN World Tourism Organization in 2018. Lauren and her team built a school for underprivileged young people providing a comprehensive hospitality & sustainability focused educational program, while also managing an on-site eco-resort that allowed students to practically apply their knowledge.

After her time in Indonesia, Lauren returned to her hometown of Palm Springs, CA and continued working in the hospitality education and social impact sectors as the founding CEO of We are One United, a community development organization, and as an adjunct faculty member at California State University, San Bernardino. Lauren has a master’s degree in Social Business & Entrepreneurship from the London School of Economics (LSE) and earned her Bachelor of Arts in International Politics at the University of California, San Diego. She is passionate about responsible & sustainable hospitality and tourism; empowering young people through work-based learning opportunities; and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations.