MARA SINGER
Ph.D. Public Communication & Technology
Your smartest people can't get their point across.
I spent two decades in marketing before I became "Dr. Singer."
So when I teach business communication, the concepts aren't abstract — they're what I actually used to sell things, build brands, and figure out why some campaigns landed and others fell flat.
Twenty-plus years in marketing, six peer-reviewed studies on trust and authenticity in digital communication, and hundreds of students prepared for the workplace — that's the foundation everything here is built on.
Theory without application is just trivia.
Application without theory is just guessing.
My students get both.
Consulting
I work with service and B2C companies to help employees communicate better, both internally and with customers — including how to reach customers across generations, who don't all respond to the same message the same way.
Engagements take a few shapes:
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Workshops
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Communication audits for teams of any size
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Ongoing coaching for female executives and other employees.
Upcoming in 2026: a workshop on courageous, situational, and effective communication.
Curious how this could work for your team?
Teaching
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Contemporary Business Communication
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Strategic Writing and Communication
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Interpersonal Communication
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Organizational Communication
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Conflict Resolution
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Public Speaking
Research
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Trust signals, disrupted
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Digital charisma
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Authenticity, branded
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Generations, decoded
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Influence, networked
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AI teammates
From the Newsletter
No-fluff advice on communication
and AI at work.
Publications
This qualitative research explores the intersection of social media, personal branding, and perceived authenticity in sports figures, focusing on Deion Sanders’s digital presence as head football coach at the University of Colorado. Two interrelated studies examine how Sanders manages his authenticity on social media and how audiences perceive his authenticity.
Singer, M. F., & Jones, O. E. (2025). Constructing Authenticity in Digital Landscapes: Deion Sanders’s Social Media Presence and Its Impact on Fan Perceptions. Societies, 15(5), 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15050134
How age shapes what fans consider 'authentic' in sports influencers — and why the same post can read as genuine to one generation and staged to another. The study used a six-factor authenticity model and real fan discussions to trace that gap. With athlete branding increasingly happening in real time online, understanding it matters more than ever.
Singer, M.F., Callendar, C. & Kantilal, S. (2025). Generational perspectives of sports figure authenticity: how age shapes fan perceptions of sports influencers in social media. Online Media and Global Communication. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2025-0001
Fan socializing and BIRGing: The impact of trait competitiveness on fan behaviors
Why competitive personalities make more devoted sports fans. Competitive people don't just play harder — they watch, cheer, and identify with their teams differently too. For teams and brands, that means your most competitive fans are also your most valuable ones to reach.
Donavan, D. T., Singer, M. F., & Carlson, B. D. (2024). Fan socializing and BIRGing: The impact of trait competitiveness on fan behaviors. Journal of Sport Management, 1(aop), 1-12.
Authenticity is a trait that is considered by both Gen Z and Millennials as an integral part of the social media influencer persuasive episode. This research uses thematic analysis to deconstruct how both Gen Z and Millennials develop their perceptions of social media influencer authenticity.
Singer, M. F., Callendar, C., Ma, X. & Tham, S. (2023). Differences in perceived influencer authenticity: A comparison of Gen Z and Millennials’ definitions of influencer authenticity during the de-influencer movement. Online Media and Global Communication, 2(3), 351-378. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2023-0038
Informing or influencing? A content analysis of wildlife feeding deterrence message in U.S. national park communication.
National parks spend enormous effort telling visitors not to feed the wildlife — but almost no one has studied whether those messages actually work. Analyzing 232 signs, brochures, and other materials across nine U.S. national parks, the study found most rely on the same playbook: appeals to responsibility and rational reasoning, framed around the animals' wellbeing rather than the visitor's own experience. The takeaway for park communicators: it may be time to test different appeals, including messages personalized to what visitors themselves care about.
Foerster, T., Chalgren, L., Abrams, K., Bice, C., Singer, M.F. (2025). Informing or influencing? A content analysis of wildlife feeding deterrence messages in U.S. national park communications. Journal of Interpretation Research.
