OrcidID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0898-4537
Laura discovered the photovoice method in 2000 while exploring arts-based approaches to youth programming and civic engagement for a Master of Education in Instructional Design.
Having previously worked as a photojournalist in Africa and Asia, the script was flipped in 2001 when Laura designed a photovoice civic engagement project that put cameras in the hands of teenage girls.
That award-winning project led to a national Girls Inc. photovoice facilitator’s guide, and photovoice community engagement and research projects with such diverse participants as South African youth, adults with acquired brain injuries, and individuals living with anxiety disorder.
Since 2008, Laura has led photovoice method trainings for medical schools, professional societies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, and facilitated photovoice professional development courses for clinicians, researchers, educators, allied health students, and nonprofit staff. In 2018, she launched PhotovoiceWorldwide’s “Talking with Pictures: Photovoice” course through the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Outreach College and Center on Disability Studies. The course is founded on her award-winning workshop for AMERSA’s 35th National Conference (Best AMERSA Workshop 2010 – Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse).
Laura received her PhD in Social Policy from Brandeis University and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a BA in English Literature from Bowdoin College.
Personal website: https://lslorenz.com
A sampling of Laura’s peer-reviewed publications:
Dania, A, & Lorenz, L. (2024). Listening to the body in physical education and sport. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.2023-0313.
Lickiewicz, J, Lorenz, LS, & Kolb, B. (2024). Photovoice in aggression management training for medical and nursing students-A pilot study. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(9), 873. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12090873
Warfield ME, Lorenz L, Ali HN, Gittell JH. (2022). Strengthening community participation by people with disabilities in community-based group homes through innovative action research. Frontiers in Public Health. Apr 29;10:747919. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.747919/full
Lorenz L, Bush E. (2022). Critical and creative thinking and photovoice: Strategies for strengthening participation and inclusion. Health Promotion Practice. 23(2):274-280. doi:10.1177/15248399211055714
Lorenz, LS, & Doonan, M. (2021). Value and cost savings from access to multi-disciplinary rehabilitation services after severe acquired brain injury. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 1855. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2021.753447
Kolb, B. and Lorenz, L. (2021). Chapter 9: Photo interview and photovoice. Engaging research participants, empowering voice and generating knowledge for change. In R. Breckner, K. Liebhart and M. Pohn-Lauggas Analysing image and media worlds in the social sciences, Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg (Studium). Electronic: ISBN: 978311061368; Paperback: ISBN: 9783110613643.
Lorenz, L. and Kolb, B. (2021). Chapter 14: Visual ethnography in health and healthcare: Concepts, steps and good practice, in P, Hackett and C. Hayre, Handbook of Ethnography in Healthcare Research, Routledge. ISBN 9780367336332. https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Ethnography-in-Healthcare-Research/Hackett-Hayre/p/book/9780367336332
Kamdar, N., True, G., Lorenz, L., Loeb, A., and Hernandez, D.C. (2020). Getting food to the table: Challenges, strategies, and compromises experienced by low-income veterans raising children. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2020.1855284
Connors, JD, Conley, MJ, & Lorenz, LS. (2019). Use of Photovoice to engage stakeholders in planning for patient-centered outcomes research. Research involvement and engagement, 5, 39-39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-019-0166-y
Lorenz, LS, Charrette, AL, O’Neil-Pirozzi, TM, Doucett, JM, & Fong, J. (2018). Healthy body, healthy mind: A mixed methods study of outcomes, barriers and supports for exercise by people who have chronic moderate-to-severe acquired brain injury. Disability and health journal, 11(1), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2017.08.005
Gallagher, DM, Hirschhorn, LR, Lorenz, LS, Piya, P. (2017). Developing a Community of Practice for HIV care: Supporting knowledge translation in a regional training initiative. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 37(1): 27-36. PMID: 28212116 DOI: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000141
Berger, RJ and Lorenz, LS. (Editors). (2015). Disability and Qualitative Inquiry: Methods for Rethinking an Ableist World. London: Ashgate. ISBN: 9780815392125.
Lorenz, LS (2015). Chapter 12 “Living with brain injury: Participatory visual methods and narrative analysis,” Disability and Qualitative Inquiry: Methods for Rethinking an Ableist World (pp 189-207). (Ed. Berger, RJ and Lorenz, LS). London: Ashgate. ISBN: 9780815392125
Lorenz L. S. (2011). A way into empathy: a ‘case’ of photo-elicitation in illness research. Health (London, England : 1997), 15(3), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459310397976
Lorenz, LS and Jon Chilingerian. (2011). Using visual and narrative methods to achieve fair process in clinical care. Journal of Visualized Experiments,48, e2342, doi:10.3791/2342. http://www.jove.com/video/2342/using-visual-narrative-methods-to-achieve-fair-process-clinical
Lorenz, LS. (2010). Visual metaphors of living with brain injury: Exploring and communicating lived experience with an invisible injury, Visual Studies, 25(3), pp 210-223, Special Issue on Visual Research Methods and Issues of Voice, Guest Editors Wendy Luttrell and Richard Chalfen. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2010.523273
Lorenz, LS. (2010). Discovering a new identity after brain injury, Sociology of Health and Illness, 32(6), pp 862-879. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2010.01244.x