Title: Business Development, Marketing Designer and Coordinator Workplace: Lindenmere Market and O.A. Newton Age: 35 [caption id="attachment_225979" align="alignright" width="387"] Lauren Connelly | DBT PHOTO BY LUIGI CIUFFETELLI[/caption] When it comes to consumer experience, Lauren Connelly is all about offering fun, trendy and engaging options. Working in business development for Lindenmere Market, a southern Delaware boutique store, Connelly aims to stay on top of her market research, trends and buying patterns to make informed decisions that not only support physical business growth but financial gains as well. In her role as a marketing designer and coordinator for Bridgeville-based agribusiness, O.A. Newton, she is able to combine that consumer focus with creative print and digital marketing. At both jobs, Connelly also oversees vendor relationships and partnerships, while pursuing new and innovative ideas for growth. Before joining O.A. Newton in 2013 and Lindenmere in spring 2018, she also held marketing, management and design positions with Body & Soul Fitness and Spa in Seaford and clothing brands Justice and Abercrombie & Fitch in Ohio. Since graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009, she has participated in a Style Lab Mentorship in partnership with designer Yigal Azrouel as well as a years-long fellowship with the Leadership Delaware program. Leadership Delaware founder and former CEO Terry Strine described Connelly as “one of the very ‘best of the best’” of the hundreds of fellows Strine worked with, noting her “broad and deep talent” as a leader and team-player. “Lauren Connelly has it, and western Sussex County is lucky to have her,” Strine wrote in his recommendation letter. Connelly has also been intimately involved with the growth of her community, serving on the founding board of the relatively new Sussex Montessori School. The proud mother of two also has donated years of service to Delaware Technical Community College and the Western Sussex Chamber of Commerce, and loves decorating for the fall and winter holiday season.