LAUREN HAMMOND
Senior Policy Strategist
[email protected]
Lauren Hammond is one of the state’s most experienced public policy strategists with extensive and distinguished experience in both elected and appointed office.
She provides California Policy Solutions clients consulting in the areas of gaming regulations, planning, civic engagement, cannabis regulations, political participation, local land use and government relations. Her blend of deep policy analysis and grasp of practical implementation of strategies and policies make her a highly sought-after strategist.
In fact, it was in recognition of her strengths in collaboration, consensus building, problem solving and ethical implementation of government policy that Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. appointed her to the California Gambling Control Commission where she served for over six years.
In that role she worked closely with the Gambling Control Commission Team and related agencies to promote integrity in California’s gambling environment, regulating 89 cardrooms and cooperative oversight of the State’s interest in 62 Tribal-State Compacts.
In her time on the Commission she became one of the most knowledgeable analysts of gambling policy issues and developed a reputation for deep understand of industry practices, government regulation of those practices and as a commissioner committed to fairness and equity that ultimately inured to the public’s benefit.
Her background in elected office has also given her a breadth of knowledge and relationships that empower both her influence on and value to a wide variety of policy areas.
Lauren won election to the Sacramento City Council in 1997, making her the first African American woman in Sacramento history to be elected to the Council.
As part of her Council responsibilities, she sat on several local Joint Powers Authorities, was a member of the National Coalition of Black Women (NCBW), the Florin Road Foundation and was a Class IX member of the American Leadership Forum (ALF).
She also served on the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority (SWA) Board, Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) Board, and on Paratransit, Inc. She was Chair of the city’s Law and Legislation Committee as well as a member of the Audit Committee.
Sacramento Magazine named her one of Sacramento’s 30 Most Powerful Women in 2003 and in 2004 she was inducted into the National Coalition of Black Women.
She is a lifetime member of the California Women Lead and is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In 2007, she received the Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award from California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State).
She is also the founder and owner of Lauren Hammond Consulting.