Lauren Black is VHA’s General Counsel and Privacy Officer. In this role, Lauren is responsible for overseeing VHA’s legal and compliance functions including risk management, strategy, contracting, corporate governance, emergency management and ethics. She is also responsible for managing VHA’s privacy program.

Before joining VHA in June 2019, Lauren spent six years working at a law firm in downtown Toronto and then ten years as Senior Legal Counsel/Litigation Counsel for a multinational organization. Lauren has extensive experience successfully resolving contentious legal matters, improving organizational efficiencies, decreasing workplace incidents and providing positive client experiences.

Lauren earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English Literature both from Queen’s University. She also holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor and a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School. Lauren is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (Canada) and has her Certificate in Risk Management from York University.

Lauren teaches as a contract lecturer at the Toronto Metropolitan University and is a Director of the Community Ethics Network.  Lauren also acts as a mentor for students of HIROC's Risk Management Residency Program.

Lauren has been actively participating in the transformation of Ontario’s health system and sits on two provincial advisory tables established to inform future decision making; the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Advisory Committee and the Ontario Health Team (OHT) Governance Advisory Committee. Lauren was instrumental in establishing and now chairs the OHT Privacy Community of Practice which enables resource sharing and privacy support for over a dozen Ontario Health Teams.

When not at work, Lauren can often be found shuttling her three children to and from sports activities and happily cheering them on from the sidelines.