Lauren Stokes holds a BS from Western Michigan University (1970) and a MLS from the University of Maryland (1975).  She has had a variety of Librarian positions. She began her career as a corporate Librarian at Mars, Inc. After moving to Florida in 1978, she started her own business holding a statewide franchise for motorized 3-wheeled scooters for the disabled. After successfully building her business, she sold it and returned to her Librarian career in 1988. Since then she has worked in academic libraries as an adjunct Reference Librarian and in public libraries in the Reference and IT departments. In 1988, she setup and managed the Reference Department at the then new Palm Harbor Public Library in Florida.  In 1994, she moved from the Reference Department to managing the implementation of the automation system and the IT department in the library.  Five years later she moved to the Tampa Bay Library Consortium where she managed an automation system for 13 libraries in four counties and an Internet network for member libraries. She also implemented and managed a 13 countywide system for Interlibrary Loan known as "Alleycat" funded through LSTA grants.  In 2004, she moved to Las Vegas - Clark County Library District. The District has 25 libraries, 14 are located in urban areas in an around Las Vegas and 11 are located in rural areas of Clark County. The Library District serves 1.2 million people which is 72% of Nevada's population. Lauren manages the Virtual Library which is responsible for maintaining the library's catalog & website, as well as social media sites, downloadable content, databases, Virtual Reference, and Interlibrary Loan services.