Lauren Bennett is the lead of the Spatial Statistics software development team at Esri. Her role includes providing vision and direction for future analytical tools in the areas of spatial statistics, machine learning, and spatiotemporal analysis, as well as involvement in the research, design, validation, documentation and creation of educational resources for new tools. Lauren has been at Esri for almost 11 years, starting as a Solution Engineer supporting Defense and Intelligence customers, shifting to software development as a Product Engineer, and has been leading the Spatial Statistics team since 2015. Lauren received a BA in Geography from McGill University, an MS in Geographic and Cartographic Science from George Mason University, and her PhD in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University.