CHSS Distinguished Alumni - Communication

CHSS Distinguished Alumni 

Lauren Cafferty

BA Communication '12

Lauren A. Cafferty graduated from George Mason University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Cafferty’s undergraduate research experience created connections with Mason faculty that launched her career as a health communication scientist. She received her master’s in communication studies from Texas State University in 2016, after which she worked as a research analyst for University of Southern California’s Hollywood, Health & Society, a program that provides the entertainment industry with accurate and up-to-date information for storylines on health, safety, and security.  
 
In 2018, Cafferty returned to where her career began, in Northern Virginia, to lead research activities. She is a clinical research manager in the department of family medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. In her role managing grant funded, multi-site research studies, she has supported external grant funding totaling $7.4 million. Cafferty has 21 co-authored publications and 23 conference papers at this early stage in her career. In 2021, Cafferty was named Outstanding Research Coordinator by the North American Primary Care Research Group, the world’s largest organization devoted to research in primary care. She also provides qualitative methods consulting to local universities.  
 
Cafferty is currently pursuing her PhD at The George Washington University, Milken Institute of Public Health.