I am an associate professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, where I held the Beverly and Richard Fink Professorship in Liberal Arts from 2020-2023. My research examines the effects of routine exposure to health information in the media, with a particular focus on conflicting and often controversial health information. I have additional research interests in communication and health equity and am a member of the Collaborative on Media & Messaging for Health and Social Policy. My work has been funded by agencies and organizations including the National Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and American Cancer Society. From 2014-2017, I was supported by a career development award through the University of Minnesota's NIH-funded Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program. I received my PhD in Communication and my BA in the History and Sociology of Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • PhD: Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2010
  • BA: History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, 2002
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Harvard Education Program in Cancer Prevention, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 2010-2013

Specialties

  • Health communication
  • Cancer communication
  • Communication and health equity
  • Media effects