Lauren Shields attended Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia, NY and has engaged in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of eye, organ and tissue donation since she received a heart transplant at the age of 9. Her volunteer work helped to establish Lauren’s Law which makes the option of joining the NYS Donate Life Registry a required field when applying for a driver’s license and she advocated to lower the Registry enrollment age from 18 to 16 years. In seeking to create awareness about the good donation can do, Lauren shares her personal transplant story at various events, including Naturalization ceremonies where she encourages new citizens to sign-up to be donors.