Lauren Forrest, PhD

I study what makes people think about suicide, attempt suicide, and (segue) develop eating disorders. I hope that my research ultimately contributes to fewer people thinking about suicide, fewer people attempting suicide, and getting more people with eating disorders effective help and support. My work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Psychological Association, the Military Suicide Research Consortium, and the Academy for Eating Disorders. I’ve been lucky to have amazing academic mentors who (professionally) raised me and helped me grow into the scientist I am today. (Shout out to Doug Kondo, April Smith, and Emily Ansell :)

Who I am as a human, outside of work

• I am a DIY home renovator and interior designer. I’m currently working on a full down-to-studs bathroom remodel and a brand new bathroom build. These are my biggest projects yet. They’re going to be awesome!
• I like my home, rooms, furniture, and decor to have a little bit of weirdness to them. I especially love finding slightly weird, imperfect, and unexpected things secondhand. For example, I once was visiting my sister out of state and found a large, 40-pound rock that had been carved into a bowl for only $40!! 😱 It just barely fit in my suitcase, which of course TSA searched after scanning it because the rock took up literally the entire suitcase and caused the suitcase to be much heavier than what a suitcase of that size should be. While the TSA agent was inspecting my suitcase, I talked to him for like 5 minutes about what an epic find the rock was. He was totally jealous. LOL
• I love hiking and just generally being outside.
• I love yoga.
• I love my dogs. I wish I could have 30+ dogs at any given time. Can you imagine how amazing that would be?!!
• I have always been an extremely picky eater. When I was little, I made up a song about how much pickles stink.
• I’m not a very “chill” person, in that I’m almost always doing something. If I’m not working on work stuff, I’m working on a home project.
• I grew up doing competitive tumbling and cheerleading, and coached gymnastics up until grad school. To this day I can throw an okay backhandspring, an ugly whip, and a very forced aerial.