As the Communications Director for the ACLU of Louisiana, Lauren Gaines plans and executes a broad vision for communications to further the affiliate’s goals. Through close collaboration with the legal, advocacy, and development teams, Lauren creates communications and public education strategies to ensure the affiliate’s programmatic work is successful. These strategies bring together digital communication, media relations, materials development, and social media to uplift the ACLU of Louisiana’s efforts to end mass incarceration and capital punishment, support immigrants’ rights and voting rights, and pursue racial justice and religious liberty.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Lauren served as the Media and Communications Specialist at Newcomb Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization with a focus on gender equity research, women’s leadership, and the history of gender in the Gulf South that is located within the Tulane University system. She also worked as an Admission Counselor at Tulane’s Office of Undergraduate Admission, where she developed communications strategies for the recruitment of high school students globally with emphasis on BIPOC student populations from South Louisiana. Lauren has also developed communications and marketing strategies for Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Louisiana Museum Foundation.
Lauren earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Political Science from Tulane in 2020. In 2023, she graduated from Tulane a second time, earning her Master of Public Administration in Nonprofit and Strategic Philanthropy Management.
