Larry D. Lauer is Vice Chancellor Emeritus at Texas Christian University, where he has served in two separate vice chancellor positions… marketing and communication and government affairs.
His post retirement affiliations have been as a Senior Fellow in TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication, TCU’s John V. Roach Honors College, and as an Adjunct Fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a non-partisan think tank in Washington, DC.
Lauer first served TCU in 1966 as a member of the communication faculty, and then in 1974 as head of its evening college, summer school, and noncredit programs. During this period he also worked on projects with the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) in Washington and served as president of its greater Fort Worth area organization. He produced public affairs television programs in the Fort Worth/Dallas area, and advised and taught seminars on leadership, management communication, and integrated marketing for nonprofits, governments, banks, public utilities, businesses, and corporations.
In 1980 he became head of university relations at TCU and began working with presidents, vice presidents, deans, trustees, volunteers, and other executives in his own industry of higher education, applying what he was learning to making his institution better understood. Eventually he brought integrated marketing thinking into the fields of strategic communication and university advancement, and soon become known as a pioneer in the field.
From 1999 to 2009 he served as TCU’s first Vice-Chancellor for Marketing and Communication, and was executive director of its strategic planning initiative… The Commission on the Future of TCU. From 2009 to 2013 he served as TCU’s first Vice-Chancellor for Government Affairs, and as Distinguished Professor of Strategic Communication in TCU’s Schieffer College.
Lauer speaks at national and international conferences, counsels with associations and organizations, and has worked with more than 40 campuses on media, integrated marketing, and strategic communication initiatives in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, South Africa, the Caribbean, the UK, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Denmark, The Netherlands, India and Singapore. His international experience includes serving seven years on the board of INPUT, an international public television producers’ association. Here he was the US host to almost 800 producers from over 50 countries in 1999.
He also served seven years on the board of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), when it became truly international with offices in Washington, London, Singapore, and now Mexico. He considers his longtime international work in higher education and public broadcasting to be people-to-people communication, or “public diplomacy,” a topic he has been interested in since his graduate work at American University.
He is the author of five books: The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption (CASE Books, 2016), is about the implications of global change. Learning to Love the Politics: How to Develop Institutional Support for Advancement (CASE Books, 2010), is about the internal politics challenges faced by advancement professionals. Communication Power (Jones & Bartlett, 1997) is a strategy and tactics guide for nonprofit executives. Competing for Students, Money and Reputation: Marketing the Academy in the 21st Century (CASE Books, 2002), has become a CASE Books bestseller. Reviews of it have dubbed him an “integrated marketing guru” and “simply the best in his field.” And Advancing Higher Education in Uncertain Times (CASE Books, 2006) also has been a CASE Books bestseller.
Lauer has also written more than 30 journal articles and book chapters on institutional media, marketing and communications. His articles on integrated marketing and planning appear in Nonprofit World, CASE Currents, Trusteeship, Public Purpose, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education and International Journal of Advancement. He edited the first ever section on marketing in the third edition of the CASE Handbook of Institutional Advancement, where he is referred to as “pioneer of integrated marketing for our profession.”
In 2012 he received the Frank L. Ashmore Award for service to the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the advancement profession for a lifetime of professional service and his pioneering of the integrated approach to marketing the academy. In 2012 he also received the CASE Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching.
Lauer is the only person ever to receive CASE’s Alice L. Beeman Award for Research in Communication twice, first in 2003 at the International Assembly and again in 2007 at the Annual Summit for Advancement Leaders. It was given to honor both of his books on marketing the academy, and is named for CASE’s first president. He also received the ICUT President’s Award in 2003 from Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas. It is presented periodically at the annual meeting of ICUT presidents for distinguished service to the organization and to the 32 independent colleges and universities in Texas. In addition he received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from CASE District IV.
He was founding chair of the redesigned international CASE assembly in 2006, now named the Summit for Advancement Leaders, which annually examines the impact of the dramatic changes in higher education on the advancement professions. He was also the founding chairman of The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Advanced Seminar on Integrated Marketing in Higher Education. He has been a faculty member and past chair of the CASE Summer Institutes on Communications and Marketing at Duke and Vanderbilt Universities.
Lauer recently served as communication and marketing consultant to the American Council on Education (ACE), worked with its Blue Ribbon Panel on Global Engagement, and was a contributor to the public diplomacy initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
