Lauren McCollum is a government affairs professional with almost thirty years of experience in business development, strategy, and government relations for the aerospace and defense industry. She joined Emerald Collaborative Partners (ECP), LLC in 2017 as an Executive Vice President before becoming Principal Consultant in 2020.
Prior to joining ECP, Lauren served as Director, Legislative Affairs for Lockheed Martin’s Intelligence, Joint and Science and Technology Programs, where she represented the company’s intelligence, unmanned systems, cybersecurity and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) programs before Members of Congress, Congressional staff, associations and political organizations. In addition to her active involvement in AUVSI, Lauren also chaired the Legislative Committee for the Fort Meade Alliance.
Before joining Lockheed Martin, Lauren was Senior Manager of Government Relations for Raytheon Company, where she was the lead lobbyist for Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business. In this role, Lauren was responsible for developing and implementing key legislative priorities and providing analysis and insight on federal legislation related to airborne radar, air-to-air-missiles, electronic warfare, intelligence and Special Operations Forces (SOF) programs.
Lauren joined Raytheon from TRW Inc., where she represented TRW on key homeland security and emergency responder capabilities before state and local officials and political organizations. She managed TRW’s political action committee and redesigned the company’s grassroots mobilization program for employees and retirees. Prior to that, Lauren was a Research Analyst at Northrop Grumman Corporation where she supported the Legislative Affairs team by conducting research and writing communications for Capitol Hill engagement.
Lauren served as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) until 2019. While on the Board, she led the effort to create AUVSI's political action committee (PAC) . She also chaired AUVSI’s Advocacy Committee, which is responsible for developing industry-wide consensus on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the unmanned systems industry. Lauren was voted AUVSI’s 2016 “Member of the Year” in May of 2016.
Lauren received a Bachelors degree in Government and Politics, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration (Public Policy Studies), both from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
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