Lauren Kovanda was born in Sacramento, California. She earned her B.S. in Animal Science at California State University, Fresno. During college, she interned at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where she disseminated legislative information on the Veterinary Feed Directive requirements by the Food and Drug Administration. Her interest in combatting antimicrobial resistance by reducing antibiotic use in livestock production led her to working in Dr. Yanhong Liu’s laboratory at University of California, Davis. 

She completed a master’s degree in the Animal Biology Graduate Group in 2020, with research evaluating the antimicrobial effects of organic acids against bacterial species. Her Ph.D. research is focused on investigating the effects of dietary short chain fatty acids on intestinal health and immunity using in vitro and in vivo porcine models.