Lauren Gardner, the Whiting School of Engineering faculty member who created the dashboard that became the world’s most trusted source for reliable, real-time data about the COVID-19 pandemic, was inducted into the WITI Hall of Fame during the organization’s 30th annual summit on November 20. WITI, formerly known as Women in Technology International, merged with Criterion Research in 2023 to become the new WITI: Workforce Innovation, Trust and Influence.
Gardner and her team, which includes co-founder Ensheng (Frank) Dong, PhD Engr ’24, and additional team members at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), and Johns Hopkins University (JHU), were recognized for “their immediate and tireless development” of a web-based dashboard, which gave the public unprecedented access to information and changed the way public health agencies identify and track pandemics. Gardner’s is the second team to be recognized in the WITI Hall of Fame’s 29-year history.
Gardner was nominated by Julie Lubbering Kanner, WITI’s senior archivist and WITI Hall of Fame’s first project manager.
“In July of 2020, my beloved father, Louis P. Lubbering died of COVID-19 and I immediately started using the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Dashboard to protect my mother who had cancer. I figured I would use it to get the information I needed to track the pandemic. While my mother did pass in October of 2024, she never acquired COVID-19,” said Lubbering. “I researched the dashboard team and learned that the dashboard was created by a woman who happened to meet all the criteria for induction.”
In January 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started in China, Gardner’s team launched the tracking map and dashboard, which quickly became a vital global resource and earned her a spot on TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 for “democratizing data” and filling “a void of public health leadership,” during the pandemic. At its height, the dashboard was pulling in more than 3 billion data requests per day.
“Having the team recognized for the development of the COVID-19 dashboard is incredibly gratifying. This achievement is the result of the collective efforts of numerous individuals and organizations. Their dedication and collaboration made it possible to create a tool that has had such an immense impact on public health,” said Gardner.
Her team ceased its dashboard operations and data collection efforts in March 2023.
Gardner specializes in epidemiological modeling, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, developed predictive models for infectious diseases including Zika, Dengue, and MERS-CoV. Early in 2019, her map predicting the 25 U.S. counties at risk for measles outbreaks made headlines.
In reflecting on the lessons learned from her work on the COVID-19 dashboard, Gardner is committed to advancing epidemiological tools for early outbreak detection and public health policy integration through training and capacity-building efforts.
“Solving these challenges requires a foundation of data-driven insights, clear science communication, and a partnership between researchers and those on the front lines of public health. I’m excited to continue this work with my colleagues and students to make a positive difference in the world,” she said.