Laurie Lewis

Christian, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Parent, Scientist, World traveler

Dr. Laurie Lewis is a Professor in Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information. She has served as the Chair of the Department of Communication since 2012. She also serves as Chair of the Organizational Communication division of the National Communication Association and as co-general Editor for the International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication (Forthcoming). She represented Rutgers as a CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) Fellow in 2014-15. Dr. Lewis earned her doctoral degree in Communication from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1994. She received her M.A. in Communication from the University of Illinois and her B.A. from the University of Washington. She has held faculty positions at The Pennsylvania State University and The University of Texas at Austin. She teaches and conducts research in areas of organizational change, stakeholder communication, nonprofit organizations, and interorganizational collaboration, and community communication. Dr. Lewis is a recognized expert in communication processes during organizational change. Her 2011 book, “Organizational Change: Creating Change Through Strategic Communication" explores strategic approaches to communication within the context of change implementation. More recently, she has co-edited two books on communication and volunteering. Her research has appeared in Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Business Communication among others. She has served as Associate Editor for Management Communication Quarterly, and has served on the editorial boards of Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, and Management Communication Quarterly and Journal of Applied Communication Research. She is an active member of the National Communication Association, International Communication Association, the Academy of Management and the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation. Dr. Lewis has consulted and done training for a number of for-profit, nonprofit and governmental organizations. Prior to her academic career she worked for the Seattle-King County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

I am personally committed to increasing civic dialogue and engagement surrounding complex social problems such as mental health, political process, and globalization among others. As a professor of communication I see a great need for attention to increasing voice, improving empathetic listening, and skillful use of 21st century communication technologies. In our personal lives, our community and political lives and in our workplaces, there is a great need to improve the ways in which people interact, come to mutual understandings of difference, and address important problems. I see my discipline and allied disciplines as central in improving discourse, deliberative dialogue and collaborative action.

As social animals, humans are driven to connect, and yet we find those connections among the most problematic part of our lives after survival (and oftentimes that connectedness is a major part of or barrier to survival). From racial hatred to sectarian war to health crises to political agreements, our news feeds are filled with stories about the success or failures to connect. Our challenge in the 21st century is to learn to motivate and execute connection.

I'm new to TED in 2015. I plan to attend the TED Conference in 2016 and will be the advisor to the group of students at Rutgers who are applying to do another TEDx event this coming spring. I'm extremely excited to attend the conference and join with the community to dream.