Lauren Nichols
Lauren Nichols is a Vice President and HUD Line of Business Lead at ICF where she oversees large, medium, and small scale program implementation, grant management, and strategic support for state and local governments responsible for administering recovery and resilience funds from HUD and other federal and state agencies.
Lauren Nichols brings nearly two decades of disaster recovery and resilience experience helping state and local governments design, manage, and implement federally funded recovery programs. She supports communities as they recover from disasters, strengthen local economies, and build more resilient systems for the future.
Her experience spans public-sector leadership and consulting roles across some of the nation’s most complex recovery efforts. Lauren began her career as an AmeriCorps volunteer after Hurricane Katrina and later held leadership roles with Louisiana’s Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit, the New York Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, and Louisiana’s policy and resilience team. In these roles, she led and supported housing, workforce, agriculture, small business, economic revitalization, and resilience programs across multiple major disasters.
Since joining ICF in 2019, Lauren has supported CDBG-DR and state-funded housing, infrastructure, economic revitalization, and grant management programs nationwide. She brings deep regulatory and waiver expertise, a practical understanding of state and local recovery needs, and a collaborative approach to helping agencies design programs that meet complex requirements and deliver lasting community impact.
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Certified Economic Development Finance Professional and New Market Tax Credit – National Development Council
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Master of International Relations, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution – The University of Queensland
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French, Spanish and EU Studies (MA) -- The University of Edinburgh