Lauren Baerecke is a Research Officer in the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town where she is a Co-Investigator and Research Manager for ParentApp for Teens, a project developing and testing an app based version of the evidence-based PLH for Parents and Teens programme. A seasoned monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practitioner with over 10 years of project and programmatic experience in the donor, NGO and public sector in South Africa, Lauren has experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of programmes in the fields of gender-based violence (GBV), adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and HIV prevention.
Lauren’s research interests include issues related to violence against young people, with a focus on sexual violence, and the delivery and effects of programmes in practice in low- and middle-income countries. She holds an MA in Psychological Research from the University of Cape Town and is planning to pursue her Doctorate, focusing on the implementation of ParentApp within a randomized controlled trial and the intersection with gender-based violence.