Lauren Payne is a senior at Rice University in Houston, Texas studying kinesiology with a concentration in sports medicine and minoring in biochemistry and global health technologies. Lauren and her team, At Your Cervix, developed the Universally Friendly Obturator for late-stage cervical cancer in a capstone course culminating their studies in global health and bioengineering. The team was awarded second place in the 2020 Rice University Undergraduate Global Health Technologies Design Competition and first place in the 2020 University of Minnesota Design of Medical Devices Conference.

In the summer of 2020 Lauren was an intern in the Rice 360 Global Health Technologies International Summer Internship Program in which she virtually collaborated with students and partners in Malawi to develop technologies for COVID-19 prevention in low-resource settings. After graduating in December 2020, Lauren plans to purse medical school with a strong interest in women's health and cancer prevention.