Knoxville City Council

Councilwoman Lauren Rider
4th District  - North & East Knoxville
Phone: 865-964-3905
[email protected]
Re-elected: November 3, 2021

Lauren Rider was elected as City Councilwoman for the 4th District in 2017 and re-elected for a 2nd term in 2021.

Education:
Master of Library Science, Indiana University (2002)
Bachelor of Science, Exercise Science, Georgia State University (1997)

Lauren Rider, a resident of North Knoxville and native of Evans, Georgia, is active in the community and a faculty member at Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC), serving as the Librarian at their Division Street campus. She previously worked as a Research Librarian in Healthcare at Methodist Medical Center-Oak Ridge, the National Library of Medicine’s Go Local-Indiana project, and at Community Health Network of Indiana.

Lauren contributed to revitalization efforts in North Knoxville by organizing and managing community-based efforts to re-build abandoned, condemned properties and return them to the tax rolls. She employed LEED and Energy Star building practices in her projects and worked through programs in the city’s Community Development Department: the Homemaker Program and the Blighted Property Redevelopment Program. Her efforts were recognized with several Knox Heritage awards, including the 2011 Knox Heritage Ronald E. Childress Award for Preservationist of the Year. To foster stability in the community, she continues to collaborate with businesses and neighborhoods on efforts to mitigate disinvestment and blighted properties.  

Lauren became active in the community working with neighbors on traffic calming, abandoned and blighted properties, a pocket park and solar installation, greenway clean-ups, crime prevention, and zoning issues.

She lives in North Knoxville with her husband, Steven Rider, a Neurologist at UTMC, their two sons, Finley and Hagen, and their two poodles, Spike and Georgie.
 
Lauren's community service includes: KAT Community Advisory Committee, Knox County Library Advisory Board, Broadway Corridor Task Force, City of Knoxville Public Property Naming Committee, Old North Knoxville, Inc., City of Knoxville Neighborhood Advisory Council.