Laurie Lewis, Ph.D
Professor, Co-Director, Center for Dialogue & Deliberation, Communication
Contact
Bio
Dr. Lewis completed her Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She has served on faculty at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Rutgers University. Her scholarly work investigates organizational change processes, volunteering and nonprofits, effective organizational collaboration, stakeholder engagement, input solicitation, and participative processes. She is author of award-winning books Organizational Change: Creating Change Through Strategic Communication and The Power of Strategic Listening in Contemporary Organizations. She served as co-editor for International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, and two volumes of Volunteering and Communication. She is also author of numerous academic publications in Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Business Communication, Communication Monographs, and the Journal of Applied Communication among others. She has authored numerous book chapters including in The Handbook of Organizational Communication, Handbook of Nonprofit Communication, Handbook of Strategic Communication, Handbook of Organizational Change and Innovation, Handbook of Applied Communication Research, and the New Handbook of Organizational Communication. She has provided consulting and training for dozens of organizations from a wide range of sectors including nonprofits, civil society organizations, businesses, and higher education institutions.
Dr. Lewis serves as the Special Assistant for College initiatives (COLFA) and as Co-Director for the Dialogue Initiative. She has served as the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Success at UTSA, as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Rutgers University, as Chair of the Department of Communication at Rutgers University, and as fellow at the Center for Organizational Leadership at Rutgers. She is the former Chair of the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association.
Research Interests
- Listening
- Dialogue
- Deliberation
- Organizational Communication
- Organizational Change
Degrees
- Ph.D. in Communication, University of California Santa Barbara (1994)
- M.A. in Communication, University of Illinois (1990)
- B.A. in Communication and Sociology, University of Washington (1986)
Honors and Awards
- 2020-2021 Best Monograph Award (for The Power of Strategic Listening) from National Communication Association (Organizational Communication Division)
- 2020 American Library Association Choice Outstanding Academic Title (for The Power of Strategic Listening)
- Outstanding Edited Book Award (w/Craig Scott), The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, National Communication Association, Organizational Communication Division (2017)
- Distinguished Edited Book Award, Volunteering and Communication Vol II: Studies in International and Intercultural Contexts, National Communication Association, Applied Communication Division (2017)
Publications
Lewis, L., Sahay, S. (2024). Role of contemporary communication technologies for listening to stakeholders. In Ndlela, M. (Ed.) Organizational Communication in the Digital Era: Examining the Impact of AI, Chatbots, and Covid-19. Palgrave Macmillian.
Lewis, L., & Sahay, S. (2024). Stakeholders and organizational change. In Miller, V., & Poole, M. (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Communication, pp 259-275. DeGruyter Press.
Lewis, L. (2022). Organizational Listening. In Heide, M., & Falkheimer, J. (Eds.), Research Handbook of Strategic Communication, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Lewis, L. (2022). Organizational change in nonprofits. In Oliveira, E., Gonçalves, G. (Eds.). Handbook of Nonprofit Communication, pp 135-143. Philadelphia, PA, Routledge.
Lewis, L. (2021). Afterward: Communication dynamics of nonprofit and voluntary organizations. In Peterson, B., & McNamee, L. (eds.), Special Issue on nonprofit and voluntary organizations: Questions and possibilities for the next era. Management Communication Quarterly, 35 (3), 461-465.
Lewis, L. (2021). Stakeholder model of change. In Poole, M.S., & Van de Ven, A. H. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational change and innovation (pp. 250-274). Oxford University Press.
Kramer, M., & Lewis, L. (2020). Communication challenges of volunteers (pp. 313-326). In O’Hair, H.D., & O’Hair, M. J. (Eds.), The Handbook of Applied Communication Research, UK, Wiley-Blackwell.
Lewis, L. (2020). The Power of Strategic Listening in Contemporary Organizations. Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield.
Lewis, L. (2019). Organizational Change: Creating change through strategic Communication 2nd Ed. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
