Lauren Britt-Elmore

Doctoral Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Lauren Britt-Elmore, Ed.D. is a recent graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with a concentration in Higher Education. Her dissertation focused on arts faculty and the factors that influenced their choices about massive open online courses (MOOCs). She has also conducted research on the way in which fine arts and online teaching modalities co-exist, leadership in fine arts schools and departments in higher education, the organizational relationship between fine arts departments and their parent institutions, and the responsibility of creative arts faculty to students with psychological issues. These interests are the direct result of her professional experiences in theatre and higher education, where she served as a senior level administrator at the New School for Drama. She has also worked in theatre companies in Washington, DC and New York. During her time at Harvard, Dr. Elmore has completed research on family understanding of the college admissions process in Malden Public Schools, the role of creative arts faculty in the Virginia Tech massacre, and conducted a historical analysis of Robert Brustein’s early leadership as the Dean of the Yale School of Drama. In addition to her academic research at Harvard, Dr. Elmore has served as faculty and a Teaching Fellow for several courses at both the Education School and the Harvard Extension School. She has worked as a Facilitator and Instructional Designer for various Programs in Professional Education. In this capacity, Dr. Elmore used her training as a theatre artist, her experience in artistic organizations, and her study of effective educational leadership to inform her practice. Dr. Elmore holds a master’s in Fine Arts from Columbia University and a master’s of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.l