Lauren Maher conducts applied research in high-stakes communication contexts, and her work examines how writing practices shape organizational care during crisis, loss, and recovery. Her scholarship and professional practice also engage proposal writing as a site of rhetorical action, where asset-based framing, institutional positioning, and evidence-driven narrative strategies construct organizations not through deficit models, but through articulated capacity, resilience, and community impact.
Education
- Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Texas Tech University (Current)
- M.A. in Technical Communication, Texas State University (2005)
- B.A. in English with Writing Emphasis, Southwest Texas State University (2002)
Professional History
- Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, FirstDay Foundation (Current)
- Chief of Staff, FirstDay Foundation, 2022 – 2025
- Chief of Staff, BCFS Health and Human Services Emergency Management Division, 2015 – 2022
- Chief of Staff, Special Projects Manager, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Division of Emergency Management, 2011 – 2015
- Project Coordinator, Technical Writer, National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center, 2005 – 2011
- Consultant/Grant Writer, Intercultural Research Development Association (IDRA), 2005 – 2010
Publications
Rice, R., Cole, R. & Maher, L. (Forthcoming). Grant writing solutions using rhetoric and technology. Routledge.
Cole, R., & Rice, R. & Maher, L. (Forthcoming). Convincing the machine: AI rhetoric in grant-writing workshops. Activities & Assignment Archive. In D. Coad, M. Vetter, B. S. Finer, & M. K. Stewart (Eds.), Writing spaces: Readings on writing (Vol. 8). writingspaces.org. Online.
Rice, R., Cole, R., & Maher, L. (Forthcoming). Prompting change ethically: Teaching grant writing with rhetoric and AI literacy. In C. Quick Schumann, & C. Etheridge (Eds.), Teaching grant writing: Deepening learning, deepening engagement. (pp. TBD). TBD.
Schaffer, J., Maher, L., Patel, M., Ornelas, D., & Bippes, B. (Forthcoming). Wait, am I being creepy? Awkward encounters, intercultural communication and ethical reflexivity in field work. In S. Schiffecker & M. Spheer (Eds.), Intercultural encounters: Case studies in global communication (pp. TBD). TTU Press.
Cole, R., Maher, L. & Rice, R. (2025). Rhetoric, technology, and the digital online media literacy assessment framework in grant writing. Modern media literacy: Generative AI, social media, and the news. IGI Global. igi-global.com
Cole, R., Maher, L., & Rice, R. (2025). Understanding and avoiding hallucinated references: An AI writing experiment. In T. Laquintano, C. Schnitzler, & A Vee (Eds.), TextGenEd: Continuing experiments. The WAC Clearinghouse. Online. wac.colostate.edu
Cooper, M. & Maher, L. (2025, June). From shelter to stability: Rethinking the first steps of disaster recovery. International Association of Emergency Managers Bulletin, 42(6), 12-14. iaem.org
Maher, L. (2025). [Review of the book Doing Dignity: Ethical Praxis and the Politics of Care, by C. Teston.] Journal of Loss and Trauma. tandfonline.com
Research & Service
Research in Progress
Rice, R., Maher, L. and Cole, R. (2025). Prompting purposefully: Teaching AI prompt engineering as rhetorical practice in English 5391: Grant Writing for Non-Profit Organizations [Research in progress with Texas Tech University Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant]
Grace, R. & Maher, L. (2025). Spatial awareness in school emergency response. [Research in progress]
Maher, L. & Pihlaja, B. (2025). Inside a high-performance national incident management team: Built for what comes next. [Research in progress]
Maher, L., Cole, R., and Rice, R. (2025). Navigating the grantscape: Ethnographic insights from novice to expert grant writers [Research in progress]
Presentations
Reframing In/Dignity: Asset-Based Rhetoric, Grant Writing, and Moral Economies of End-of-Life Care. (Forthcoming, 2026). Rhetoric Society of America. Portland, OR.
Mapping Institutional Response to Line of Duty Deaths (LODD). [Three Minute Research Pitch]. (2025). Association for Business Communication 2025 Annual International Conference. Online.
Plenary: “Writing effective grant proposals.” (2024). International Conference on Intersections of Knowledge: Exploring Discourses and Beyond in Humanities and Social Sciences (BITS Pilani). Pilani, India.
Incident Action Planning (IAP) in urban search and rescue. (2010). Texas Emergency Management Conference. San Antonio, TX.
Affiliations and Ongoing Service
Member, Hospice Austin Making Moments Capital Campaign Committee (Current)
Member, Association for Business Communication (Current)
Member, Rhetoric Society of America (Current)
Member, Association for Death Education and Counseling (Current)
Member, Texas Tech University Graduate English Society (Current)
Member, Phi Kappa Phi at Texas Tech University (Current)
Member, Wimberley Community Civic Club (Current)
Member, Society for Technical Communication (2005 – 2025)
Board Member, Texas Task Force 1 Foundation (2022 – 2024)
Board Member, Hope Held by a Horse Texas (2024)
Other Service Activities
Conference Proposal Reviewer. (2025). Association for Business Communication 2025 Annual International Conference.
Interrater/Coder. (2025). Content analysis of research questions in technical and professional communication journals. Texas Tech University.
Reviewer. (2024). Sites of writing: Essays in honor of Anne Ruggles Gere.
Deployment & Response Experience
- DR-4485-TX and DR-4484-LA COVID-19 Pandemic, Operations Section Chief, Deputy Operations Section Chief, Technical Information Specialist (2020-2021)
- DR-4339-PR Hurricane Maria, Deputy Incident Commander, Immediate Disaster Case Management (2018)
- DR-4332-TX Hurricane Harvey (2017)
- Incident Commander, State Medical Operations Center
- Deputy Incident Commander, Immediate Disaster Case Management
- Planning Section Chief, Medical Shelter Operations
- DR-4272-TX Severe Storms and Flooding, Technical Information Specialist (2016)
- DR-4269-TX Severe Storms and Flooding, Technical Information Specialist (2016)
- United States Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement Shelter Operations, Planning Section Chief (2016, 2015)
- DR-4245-TX Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, Technical Information Specialist (2015)
- DR-4223-TX Severe Storms Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, Technical Information Specialist (2015)
- EM-3363-TX West Explosion, Technical Information Specialist (2013)
- DR-4029-TX Wildfires, Technical Information Specialist (2011)
- DR-1931-TX Hurricane Alex, Technical Information Specialist (2010)
- FM-2806-TX Montague Fire Complex, Technical Information Specialist (2009)
- DR-1791-TX Hurricane Ike, Technical Information Specialist (2008)
- EM-3290-TX Hurricane Gustav, Technical Information Specialist (2008)
- DR-1780-TX Hurricane Dolly, Technical Information Specialist (2008)
- EM-3277-TX Hurricane Dean, Technical Information Specialist (2007)
- DR-1606-TX Hurricane Rita, Technical Information Specialist (2005)
- EM-3216-TX Hurricane Katrina Evacuation, Technical Information Specialist (2005)
Awards & Recognition
- Carolyn Rude Technical Communication Endowed Scholarship (2025-2026)
- Texas Tech University Competitive Tuition Scholarship (2021-2022)
Teaching Experience
- Guest speaker/lecturer, ENG 5391 Grants and Proposals for Nonprofits. (2024 – 2026). Texas Tech University: Lubbock.
- Graduate Assistant, Center for International Studies. Texas State University. (Appointed)
- Teaching Assistant, Texas State University Writing Center. (Appointed)