Lauren Kennedi Ozie Dixon is an innovator, designer, and creative. Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Southern Mississippi, her artistry has primarily occurred within the sectors of lighting design and creative production. Lauren earned her BFA from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she created both her own major and her own freelance company. The title of the major was Innovative Design for Production and Live Events with a concentration in Lighting Design. Lauren also has a minor in education and is deeply moved by how performance education allows students to learn collaboration strategies, emotional processing, regulation and expression tactics. Her company, kaLeiDoscope Designs, pushed her through her undergraduate matriculation to learn to play, explore, and imagine lighting through the lens of a Black Woman. Lauren is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc and an advocate for serving her community, specifically through Theater education. Lauren is entering her final year as a MFA candidate in the Lighting Design Program at the California Institute of the Arts. Ultimately she hopes to create work that emphasizes art as a tool of freedom, a tool of self-care, and a place where the imagination can provoke change in reality and “Light the Way '' to a better world.