Becca Bracken is a co-founder of and community organizer for The Lexington Huddle. She was inspired to join forces with Lauren, Paige, and Bonnie after her parents died and she found there were little to no secular resources to communally grieve or seek support. Together, they have endeavored to encourage and indulge in the growth and resilience of community.

Outside the Huddle, Becca is an adjunct professor. She is passionate about curiosity and thus endeavors to make learning not only possible, but interesting and fun for everyone. She believes critical thinking and challenging social conventions are fundamental elements of a prosperous society, and that success is measured by standards like joy, safety, and respect.

Becca delights in almost anything that requires creativity and ingenuity– writing & storytelling, words & language, building things, cooking, music, and art. She’s a peculiar combination of loving & empathetic and fiery & cynical. She also loves animals, particularly cats, and will probably greet your dog before she notices you’re at the other end of the leash (sorry in advance).

“We can be filled with holes and loss and wide expanses of unhealed geography and we can also be excited by life and in love and content at the exact same moment. … The truth about healing is that you do not need to heal to be whole.”

—Augusten Burroughs

Lauren Gawthrop is a proud co-founder of The Huddle, organizing the advocacy and body positivity branches of the organization. Raised for the first half of her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the second half in Cincinnati, Lauren had early exposure to culture shock. Coming from a fairly secular area to having to always factor in Sunday morning church when planning sleepovers with her friends was quite eye-opening and made her feel like an outsider. Thus began her commitment to creating opportunities for people to feel included, especially those that don’t fit squarely into societal norms.

Her time as an undergrad at UK brought her to Lexington. After gathering her journalism degree and a few minors (linguistics and music theory & history), she hurried off into the exciting world of bartending. OK, maybe just for a year while she did some traveling and figured out what she wanted to do with said degree.

She decided on a career in TV news, and worked her way up the ranks over the next decade from production assistant to reporter to news anchor. During her decade in news, she lived in 4 different states, made some amazing friendships, and learned a lot about herself. It was through self-examination that she realized her career wasn't filling her cup and was actually negatively impacting many aspects of her health. She left news in 2016 to pursue a career in marketing and communications, which she continues today.

Lauren volunteers for a number of local organizations and spends her free time growing her small rental business, traveling with her husband, looking for ways to further reduce her environmental footprint, seeking out delicious food, and cuddling her dog. She's thrilled to collaborate on the conceptualization and actualization of The Huddle with three unique, creative, and compassionate Lexingtonians, and hopes many others will find acceptance and support through the community they are building.

“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.”

—Marshall McLuhan

Bonnie Marie is a co-founder and Activities Director for The Lexington Huddle. Bonnie has over 10 years of experience in dancing and acting. Bonnie has performed in musical theatre and murder mystery dinner theatres in and outside of Lexington for over a decade. She has been a solo vocalist at our very own Kentucky Castle in Versailles.

Bonnie graduated from Lafayette High School & SCAPA, the School for Creative and Performing Arts, as a vocal major and independent study theatre major. She has taught a variety of choreography and acting workshops to a large range of ages. Bonnie has traveled back and forth between Kentucky and her hometown in Illinois for years, and she has performed and attended school along the way.

Bonnie has a strong love of animals and has been a licensed local pet groomer since 2014. She loves to record music and dissect movies in her spare time while hanging out with her dog, Mowgli, and cat, Bagheera. She also has an insatiable love for art.

“Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.”

—Soren Kierkegaard

Paige Fuller is an awesome lady, but she has not yet written her bio.