Lauren Ballard

Data Analytics Specialist | Outreach Coordinator | Lead for Project Midnight Ghost

Lauren graduated from Auburn University's School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences in August of 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Geospatial and Environmental Informatics. She graduated with highest honors in the inaugural class at the Martin L. Nesbitt Jr. Discovery Academy in 2018. She attended Satellite Week 2017 and was a mentor at Satellite Week in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 . She was a ThinSat Program participant and attended the Ground Systems Architectures Workshop in 2018 and 2019. She helped with project management on Team Miles’s CubeSat. Lauren is also mentor in the Deep Space STEM program. She works mainly on data analytics, remote sensing, GIS, and GPS systems. She works as a Conservation Specialist at Ducks Unlimited, Inc. She works as the Data Analytics lead for Project Midnight Ghost, which is a search for history’s most important missing airplane, “The White Bird”, where two French pilots went missing on a transatlantic flight from Paris, France to New York, New York, in May of 1927.