Alumni Spotlight: Lauren Vargas

September 1, 2017

Lauren Vargas graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma Department of Mass Communications with a B.A. in Journalism/Public Relations in 2001.

By day, Lauren Vargas is the Head (Mad Hatter) of Employee Digital Engagement and Collaboration for at Fidelity Investments– one of the world’s largest providers of financial services. Vargas was previously named by The Economist Intelligence Unit as one of the top 25 social business leaders. She is based in Boston, Massachusetts and by night, she is an insomniac devouring dystopian fiction. And somewhere in a parallel universe, Vargas found a way to stop time and graduate from Harvard in June 2014 with a Masters of Liberal Arts, Museum Studies and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Museum Studies.

Vargas is a digital and community management strategist and multi-faceted communications professional with experience in internal and external corporate communications, governmental affairs and community relations. As a professional and adjunct university instructor, she assists organizations and students engage with the communities they serve by fostering authentic relationships built on trust through conversations and participatory media.

“The journalism school was amazing and I think, especially now that I’ve been exposed as a student and an academic for Ivy League Institutes, I have to say that my education at UCO was above and beyond Ivy League. UCO set me up for how I needed to get to that next step.” – Lauren Vargas