Lauren Stover is the Assistant Aviation Director for Public Safety, Security and Communications for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD), responsible for supervising the Security Operations and Communications divisions for Miami International Airport as well as overseeing the Police and Fire Rescue operations for the Department.

Stover, a 28-year veteran of Miami-Dade County government, was recruited in 2003 by the newly created Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from a senior management position she held at Miami International Airport (MIA) for nearly a decade. The federal agency, created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, tasked Stover with building a comprehensive public affairs operation within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the southeastern United States and named her chief media spokesperson for more than 60 airports. In 2004, she was promoted to Eastern Field Director for TSA's Office of Strategic Communications, overseeing security-related public outreach programs for more than 200 airports in 20 states. During her tenure she was at the helm of many sensitive news stories impacting the Department of Homeland Security and conducted in-depth interviews with many major news organizations on matters of national security.

During her tenure with DHS, Stover was hand-picked by the Department to stand up a Joint Information Center in New Orleans under Vice Admiral Thad Allen, designated as the Principal Federal Official to lead the federal recovery efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her knowledge of incident management extends well beyond the aviation sector, having been the first Public Affairs Director in DHS to test a key role in the National Response Plan during the largest weapons of mass destruction exercise in U.S. history. She is highly trained in handling incidences of national significance and is regarded by the Department of Homeland Security as one of the top crisis managers in the U.S.

At Miami International Airport, she became the first female Assistant Director for Security and Operations as appointed by Miami-Dade Aviation Director José Abreu in 2006. That same year, she launched Behavior Pattern Recognition training at MIA, making it the first U.S. airport to train more than 30,000 of its workers in this behavioral analysis methodology. She incorporates media relations into the fabric of MIA's security program, which adds another layer of deterrence to the airport's security matrix. She has worked with virtually all key law enforcement agencies, local and federal, on homeland and aviation security events and issues, and is well known in the aviation community. She has been featured in many national news stories and has been invited to speak to many aviation organizations on her crisis management experience.