Rev. Lauren Smith’s (she/her) ties to Unitarian Universalism stretch back five generations. Her great-great-grandfather William Hazel was born a free black person in North Carolina and became a member of the First Parish in Cambridge after his family fled north prior to the Civil War. Her UU connections stretch into the future, as well. She and her husband, the Rev. Chris Holton Jablonski, have three children—ages ten, fifteen and eighteen—who love the UU congregations in which they have grown up.

Lauren served the Unitarian Universalist Association as Director of Stewardship and Development from 2019 to 2026. Before her time at the UUA, Lauren served as co-minister of South Church Unitarian Universalist in Portsmouth, NH and assistant minister at the UU congregation in San Mateo, CA. She also spent a delightful summer as Island Minister at the Star Island Retreat Center.