Lauren Ritchie

Lauren Ritchie is a climate justice advocate and storyteller from The Bahamas. She has organized coastal cleanups and creative environmental workshops on her home island, Grand Bahama. She earned her B.A. in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, where she launched Columbia Climate Conversations, a panel series bringing together diverse activists and scientists to speak on environmental justice issues. She also founded The Eco Justice Project, a digital platform focused on climate storytelling, accessible education, and creative expression.

In 2023, Lauren worked with Girl Rising and the Sean Connery Foundation to lead a summer camp for adolescent Bahamian girls to express their experiences of a changing island environment through photography, writing, poetry, and film. She also became a PADI Advanced Scuba Diver and traveled across multiple islands with the Bahamas National Trust to document ecosystems, traditional knowledge, and community restoration efforts. She produced a short film titled Preserve Our Heritage, Protect Our Future, which reflects on the loss of Bahamian biodiversity—and the cultural identity embedded within it—due to climate change and exploitation. Lauren currently works as a creative director for environmental organizations and campaigns, and is pursuing an M.A. in Documentary Film at the University of the Arts London.

Her writing has appeared in The Malala Fund Assembly, Girl Rising, Brown Girl Green, and Youth to the People, and Vogue España, Refinery29, Global Citizen, The Oxygen Project, Columbia Spectator, Reformation, AJ+ Español, and The Michelle Obama Foundation have featured her work.