Meet Lauren Speeth [cv]
“Never underestimate your power to make a ripple” – Lauren Speeth
Meet TEF team member Lauren Speeth, author of the awareness-raising book on domestic poverty entitled
Tracks of Hope and a social entrepreneur who aligns her work with academics, visionary pathfinders, famous musicians, and humble people, to make lasting and measurable change. Speeth was the founding CEO of The Elfenworks Foundation and Elfenworks Productions and is the founder of The Center for Non Harming Ministries. In addition to serving as one of our webmasters, Dr. Speeth also currently serves on the external advisory boards of the
Mills College Graduate School of Business,
Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford,
Georgia Green Loans, as well as the
Board of Regents of Saint Mary's College of California.
Much sought-after as a guest lecturer and public speaker, Speeth's current favorite speaking topics are: radical ahimsa;
making change in uncharted waters; service learning; leadership ethics, fiduciary capitalism and enlightened self-interest;
social entrepreneurship and conscienceware; and domestic poverty and activism.
A computer programmer since 1983, Speeth holds a bachelor's degree from Mills College, a master's (MBA) from Saint Mary's College,
a doctorate (DBA) from Golden Gate University, and an Advanced Computer Security Professional Credential from Stanford University,
as well as lifetime Community College Teaching Credentials in Finance, Management, and Computers.
The bulk of Speeth's early computer experience was gained in progressively responsible
positions — from Systems Analyst to Consulting Systems Engineer — at Bank of America, which she joined as a
macro-11 programmer (an assembly language program for DEC minicomputers) in 1984.
Since the early days of the internet when her work was noted in Gramophone Magazine (Webwatch, 2001) and highlighted in the New York
Times (Classical Musicians Take to the Web, 2002), her client sites have consistently been award winners. One of her early efforts for The Elfenworks Foundation was as a System Architect & html/xml programmer for inequality.com for the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.
Speeth began her filmmaking career in 2001, capturing the performances of classical and jazz musicians of the highest caliber. Since 2007, with the joint effort Faces of Poverty, she has focused on visual storytelling on behalf of nonprofits. Her films, screened in festivals throughout the United States and abroad — as well as on Starfish TV, the Classic Arts Channel, KQED Channel 9, and KBHK TV's Bay Area Focus — have garnered Best International Mid-Length Documentary and Best Music Video & Best Jazz Video; as well as Davey, Summit, JPF, and Telly Awards. Speeth's forthcoming (Fall 2010) DVD release, A Concert for Hope, is an audiovisual celebration, mixing musical performances with speeches and animations. Recorded live in 2007, it commemorates the opening of the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality and the launching of their website, inequality.com. An official selection of the Reel Festival for Women in Los Angeles and Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki, this film has also won a Silver Lei award at the Honolulu International Film Festival.
Dr. Speeth is undertaking another doctorate, and she is in the dissertation stage of a D.Min. at BGU, a Seattle seminary with a social justice agenda. Lauren and everyone at The Elfenworks Foundation believe that YOU can make an exceptional difference if you’re committed to do so. She aims to explain Carter’s roadmap to help those who’d like to try, but don’t know where to dive in: her dissertation will focus on President Carter’s model for making lasting measurable change in uncharted territory.
An active recording and performing musician, Speeth is a founding member of the band Commodore Callahan and is currently on sabbatical from the Peninsula Symphony, where she has been honored to hold a seat in the First Violin section since 2000. Personal recording credits include: Love is Here (lyrics, vocals, backup instruments, 2009); Rejuve (violin, 2007); Tammy Hall: Reflections (violin II, 2006); The elfenworks holiday album (vocals, A Felicidade, 2005); the elfenworks motion picture bumper soundtrack (violin II, 2004); A Joy Restored (violin, 2002); and John Watkins & Hiroshi Iguchi's Chinese Tea (flute, 1983). She asks all musicians to join the grass roots effort “Second Saturdays Sing Along” to end child hunger in America by 2015; her song “Such a Crime” and easy chords are at http://elfenworks.org/project_saturdaysingalong.html.
Our thanks to Silicon Valley Democratic TV for allowing us to post the online interview embedded on this page. If you have difficulty viewing Windows Media Player files, the interview is also available on our YouTube page and in another format at Silicon Valley Democratic TV's website, sccdp.org.
