Lauren Kennedi Ozie Dixon is an artist, innovator, designer, and creative. Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Southern Mississippi, her artistry has primarily occurred within the sectors of lighting design and creative production. Lauren has honed her production and lighting skills by working a myriad of events since her sophomore year of high school. She has her BFA from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she created both her own major and her own freelance company. The title of the major was Innovative Design for Production and Live Events with a concentration in Lighting Design. Her company was entitled Knockout Designs, now kaLeiDoscope Designs where she provided services to the many productions held in the Atlanta University Center throughout her matriculation and in the Atlanta community. Lauren also has a minor in education and is deeply moved by how performance education allows students to learn collaboration strategies, emotional processing, regulation and expression tactics. Lauren is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc and an advocate for serving her community, specifically through Theater education. Currently. Lauren is a second year MFA candidate in the Lighting Design Program at the California Institute of the Arts. As she continues her journey through the lights of the entertainment industry, she believes in the power of art and artistic performance to have a transformative effect on our world and hopes to utilize that power to effect positive change. Ultimately she hopes to create work that emphasizes art as a tool of freedom, a tool of self-care, and a place where the imagination can provoke change in reality and “Light the Way '' to a better world. As Shirley Pendergrass and Kathy Perkins have led the way for her to make space in the entertainment industry, Lauren hopes to serve as a beacon for future aspiring Black Women Designers everywhere.