LAUREN HAINLEY

Lauren Hainley has been a leading performer, advocate, and strategist in the Houston Art's community since 1995. She believes the arts show people parts of the world they could not access on their own, and that keeping those doors open is work worth doing at every scale.

She currently serves as Operations Manager for Jazz Houston, supporting both the Jazz Houston Youth Orchestra and the main orchestra's programs and operations. She also teaches classes in the University of Houston's Arts Leadership program, where her courses emphasize stakeholder analysis, equity-centered program design, and applied consulting with Houston-area nonprofits and civic organizations. She remains an active performer with Houston-area theater companies.

From 2018 to 2023, she served at Houston Arts Alliance, ultimately as Founding Director of its Disaster Services Program, building a model focused on supporting artists, arts organizations, and the broader cultural sector before, during, and after disaster. The program's work has been presented at the Smithsonian Institution and the Americans for the Arts national conference and published through the Performing Arts Readiness network. She chaired a 24-member cross-sector advisory group, developed infrastructure including the Cultural Asset Map, and produced the Disaster Resiliency and the Arts report, informing policy and practice for Houston and municipalities across the country. Due to that community work, she was chosen to represent Houston's arts community as the cultural sector liaison to the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management during recovery from Winter Storm Uri in 2021.

Lauren's work is rooted in a long view of what the cultural sector is for, with a particular interest in the small organization as the entry point through which most people first encounter the arts.
She serves on the Board of Directors of Garden Theatre and holds affiliations with the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response and the International Association of Emergency Managers.

Education

MA, Arts Leadership · University of Houston · 2018
BA, Theatre Arts · Hendrix College · 2007