Laura Zakaras
Overview
Biography
Laura Zakaras is the Director of the Research Communications Group; Director of Communications for the Institute for Civil Justice; and Director of Communications for the Financial Literacy Center, a joint center of RAND, Dartmouth College, and the Wharton School. In those positions she shapes communications strategies, develops dissemination plans, and provides communications expertise as a member of project teams. She has also conducted research on the arts and co-authored several reports, including The Performing Arts in a New Era (2001), Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts (2005), and Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy, which was number two on RAND's bestseller list in 2008. Before coming to RAND, she taught literature and writing at several universities in the U.S. and Europe. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington.
Research Focus
Recent Projects
- Residential Insurance in the Gulf States
- Dissemination for the Financial Literacy Center
- Cultivating Demand for the Arts
Selected Publications
Laura Zakaras and Julia F. Lowell, Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy, RAND (MG-640-WF), 2008
Sue Bodilly and Catherine Augustine with Laura Zakaras, Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination, RAND (MG-702-WF), 2008
David S. Loughran, Seth A. Seabury, and Laura Zakaras, Regulating Older Drivers, RAND (OP-189-ICJ), 2007
Kevin McCarthy, Elizabeth Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, Arthur Brooks, Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts, RAND (MG-281-WF), 2005
Nicholas M. Pace, Daniela Golinelli, Laura Zakaras, Capping Non-Economic Awards in Medical Malpractice Trials: California Jury Vertis Under MICRA, RAND (MG-234-ICJ), 2004
Kevin McCarthy, Arthur Brooks, Julia Lowell, and Laura Zakaras, The Performing Arts in a New Era, RAND (MR-1367-PCT), 2001
Honors & Awards
- RAND Silver Medal Award, Institute for Civil Justice
- RAND Team Player Award, Institute for Civil Justice
Civil Justice
Biography
Laura Zakaras is the Communications Director for the Institute for Civil Justice. In that role, she works closely with researchers to create effective reports, briefings, congressional testimony, newsletters, and Web-based communications. With over 20 years of experience at RAND, she has developed special expertise in organizing complex material for diverse audiences, integrating multi-author works, and developing communications strategies and dissemination plans to broaden the reach of RAND research. Zakaras is also a researcher in the arts and has co-authored a number of reports in that field. Before coming to RAND, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in writing and literature at a number of universities in the United States and Europe, including the University of Texas, the University of Maryland, Wurzburg University in Germany, and Boston University in Brussels, Belgium.
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