Lauren Mellows is Communications Manager at the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN). She designs and executes ICAN’s global communication strategies to convey ICAN’s activities and messages to the public, policymakers, partner organizations and other key audiences. She creates digestible and eye-catching multimedia content and manages ICAN’s social media channels and website. Lauren provides support to the Executive Director and Program Managers and conducts interviews with women peacebuilders in the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) to document their work and impact. She also drafts and manages the publication process for products such as ICAN’s Annual Reports.

Lauren was formerly Editorial Manager for a data and research start-up in Nairobi, Kenya. She has also worked as a freelance writer and editor and interned with an Africa-focused political risk consultancy in London. Lauren was awarded a distinction for her MSc. in African Studies at the University of Oxford. For her thesis she carried out a 4-week fieldwork research project in Nairobi. She also has an undergraduate degree from the University of Bristol in Politics and Sociology.