Lauren Spires is the Assistant Director of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA). In this role, she helps the Director lead and support the division with its various projects primarily related to education public policy in Tennessee.

Lauren began her career with the State of Tennessee in 2013, when she was hired by the General Assembly as a bill clerk and later went on to serve as a legislative assistant in the State Senate. She initially joined OREA in 2016 as a legislative research analyst and was appointed the state’s Higher Education Resource Officer in 2020. In 2022, she joined the University of Memphis as its Deputy Chief Government Relations Policy Officer before returning as the Assistant Director of OREA in late 2023.

A Middle Tennessee native, Lauren earned an Associate of Science in Communications from Volunteer State Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Middle Tennessee State University, and a Master of Public Administration from Tennessee State University. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Public Policy and Administration from Tennessee State University, and she is a 2022 graduate of the Tennessee Government Management Institute.

Lauren has been involved with multiple award-winning projects receiving recognition from both the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society and the National Conference of State Legislature’s Legislative Research Librarians.

Lauren and her husband, Rob, live in Nashville with their daughter and cat. In her spare time, she enjoys exercising, catching up on the latest episodes of her favorite shows, and oil painting.