2025 Mentors for the Graduate and Early Career Mentoring session
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Ambar Basu, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, University of South Florida
Faculty Page
Dr. Ambar Basu (PhD Purdue University) is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida. He writes on and about the intersections of culture, power, and communication in marginalized health settings. His research and teaching focuses on material and discursive dimensions of inequity and in-access in the context of global capital formations. With particular emphasis on theorizing culture as a site of social change, his scholarship documents and analyzes narratives about health that emerge from dialogue between his self (as the researcher), and research participants.
Dr. Basu’s scholarship embraces a mix of methods such as critical ethnography and autoethnography, and highlights the implications of knowledge production in collaboration with marginalized communities. Self-reflexivity is an integral lens/method that shapes his work.
Dr. Basu has served as Senior Editor for Health Communication, and co-edits a Routledge book series titled Critical Cultural Studies in Global Health Communication.
Marleah Dean Kruzel, Ph.D., FSBM
Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of South Florida
Member, Tampa General Cancer Institute
Collaborator Member, Health Outcomes & Behavior Program, Moffitt Cancer Center
Associate Editor, Patient Education & Counseling
Associate Editor, The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication
Marleah Dean Kruzel (PhD, Texas A&M University) is Associate Professor at the University of South Florida, a Collaborator Member in the Health Outcomes & Behavior Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and a member of the Tampa General Cancer Institute. Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research interests are cancer communication and the communication of genetic risk information. She is an expert on the health experiences and decisions of previvors—individuals with inherited gene mutations who have not been diagnosed with cancer. Her work has been published in journals such as Genetics in Medicine, Academic Medicine, Social Science & Medicine, Supportive Care in Cancer, Patient Education & Counseling, Qualitative Health Research, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, and Journal of Genetic Counseling. She also co-edited the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research is and has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. A BRCA2-positive previvor herself, she is committed to patient engagement and science communication.
Kathryn Greene, PhD
Professor
Department of Communication, Rutgers University
Member, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ)
Joint Appointment, Rutgers School of Public Health
Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy
Affiliate, Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies
http://wp.comminfo.rutgers.edu/kgreene
Kathryn Greene is a professor of Communication at Rutgers University. I have published more than 150 articles, chapters, and books and have multiple NIH funded grants. My research program explores health decision-making related to various health risks, or the central role of communication in preventing risk and maintaining health and wellness in individuals and populations. My research contexts include stigmatized issues, health disparities, and community grounded processes. The two main communication thrusts of this research are: 1) exploring how people choose to share or conceal health diagnoses, updates, or coordinate other information as they manage illness; and 2) increasing involvement in message processing and exploring engaging prevention message features, especially targeting adolescent risk taking.
Thomas Feeley, PhD
Michael L. Hecht
(PhD, University of Illinois) is President of REAL Prevention, LLC and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication Arts and Sciences and Crime, Law and Justice at Penn State University. He started in prevention research over 40 years ago, after a graduate student recruited him to collaborate on a narrative project targeting adolescent drug use. Now, Michael focuses his work on school and community-based prevention, culture and health, health message design and narrative health messages. This work includes several evidence-based interventions that advance his Narrative Engagement Theory and Principle of Cultural Grounding. keepin’ it REAL is the most widely distributed school-based curriculum since its adoption by D.A.R.E. It has been adapted for use in Nicaragua, the UK, Spain, and Mexico. Parents Stories guides parents to discuss alcohol with high school youth in order to reduce risky drinking. Both are recognized by the U.S. Surgeon General. Other evidence-based interventions include HPV Stories, which was developed with Planned Parenthood and promotes HPV vaccine among youth, women, and men and is endorsed by NCI and the American Cancer Society; Mighty Teens targeting risky sexual behavior among middle school students (with AASA: The School Superintendents Association); REAL media targeting substance use among high school students (developed with the 4-H clubs and recommended by NREPP), the Opioid Rapid Response System for prevention deaths from overdose, and the Student Athlete Wellness Portal targeting reducing prescription opioid misuse among high school athletes. He has authored more than 200 books, chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles. This work represents collaborative efforts with groups and individuals through which Michael and his colleagues hope to promote healthy, safe, and responsible behaviors.
Sojung Claire Kim
Sojung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. At Mason, she directs the Communication, Health, and Relational Media (CHARM) Lab, where she conducts research on effective message design and evaluation and misinformation correction with eye tracking technology.
Kim received her doctorate in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her post-doctoral fellowship in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. At both UW and Penn, she was involved in the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR) supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Her research interests broadly lie on intersections of interactive media, health risk communication, and strategic messaging. Research contexts primarily concern challenging health and environmental issues such as cancer, vaccination, addiction, and climate change.
Kim has published her work in top journals including Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, Health Communication, Science Communication, Environment and Behavior, and Psycho-Oncology. She has received Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association (ICA) and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
Kim currently serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
Tobias Reynolds-Tylus, Ph.D
Tobias Reynolds-Tylus, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University, where he teaches courses on health communication, health campaigns, and research methods. He received his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018. He received both his BA and MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Reynolds-Tylus’ research interests include health communication, persuasion and health campaigns. His research addresses how individuals and organizations can encourage health behaviors through tailored messaging. To date, much of his work has focused on understanding resistance to public health guidance and how to reduce its occurrence. Dr. Reynolds-Tylus has also conducted research on Americans’ organ donation decision-making, including several projects evaluating the effectiveness of organ donor registration campaigns
Shaunak Sastry, Ph.D.
Dr. Shaunak Sastry, Ph.D. is Professor of Communication in the School of Communication, Film, & Media Studies and Provostal Fellow for community-engaged research at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Sastry is the 2nd Vice-President of the National Communication Association. His award-winning health communication research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, and he currently is Co-Principal Investigator and co-lead of the Community Engagement Core of the Cincinnati Center for Climate Change and Health, which is funded by a $4 million NIH P20 award. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of critical health communication, globalization, and infectious disease politics. He has served as senior editor of the journal Health Communication and sits on the editorial board of several leading academic journals.
Kami Silk
Kami Silk, (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is a Rosenberg Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware. She previously served as the senior associate dean for research in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and professor in the Department of Communication and AgBioResearch at Michigan State University.
Silk is a health communication scholar who investigates how to communicate effectively to promote positive health outcomes among the lay public. Her recent research has focused on the health issues of breast cancer risk reduction, suicide prevention, social norms, and improving nutritional practices among adolescent mothers for obesity reduction. Her research has been published in the Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior, and Health Promotion & Practice.
Silk is a researcher with the Breast Cancer and Environment Research where she serves as the principal investigator of two National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grants and as a co-investigator of another breast cancer project. Her BCERP work includes communication science research and outreach activities to educate girls, parents, and pediatric health care providers about the links between the environment and breast cancer.
CHAREE M. THOMPSON, PhD
Associate Professor
Norman P. Jones Professorial Scholar
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
I study heath communication in interpersonal and patient-provider contexts, focusing on the role communication plays in how people navigate the uncertainties associated with conditions that are chronic, non-visible, not well understood, underfunded, and associated with stigma. My first line of research theorizes about uncertainty in relationships, often from the perspective of social network members and including those living with chronic illness. My second research area involves the development, delivery, and assessment of theoretically grounded communication trainings for social network members and health care providers to overcome the support and care challenges associated with uncertainty.
Sean J. Upshaw, PHD
Edward A. Bouchet Scholar
Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations
Assistant Professor of Visual Information and Persuasion in Health Communication (https://advertising.utexas.edu/faculty/sean-upshaw)
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Sean J. Upshaw (Howard University, 2018) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas-Austin’s Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations in the Moody College of Communication. Dr. Upshaw is an accomplished Edward Alexander Bouchet Scholar with numerous publications in academic journals such as Health Communication, Applied Communication Research, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Health Communication, Patient Education & Counseling, and Journalism Studies. His research is centered around health disparities with a particular focus on visual information and persuasion in health message design, cultural health literacy, and cultural-media representation for historically underserved and marginalized Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. In addition, Dr. Upshaw’s research interests expand upon health AI and health information engagement among BIPOC audience. Dr. Upshaw is a qualitative interdisciplinary health communication scholar who investigates how BIPOC communities interpret and evaluate health messages and how this contributes to their health decision-making. He also utilizes community-participatory and culture-centered health communication approaches to contribute meaningful research involving health disparities impacting BIPOC communities using qualitative research methods. Dr. Upshaw is an active member of esteemed organizations such as the National Communication Association (NCA), the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Media (AEJMC), and the Association of Medical Illustration (AMI).
To learn more about Dr. Upshaw’s work, please click this link:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sean-Upshaw-2
Also, follow Dr. Upshaw on social media:
BlueSky: @iamsju82.bsky.social
LinkedIn: Sean J. Upshaw
Heather L. Voorhees, PhD
University of Montana
Dr. Heather L. Voorhees is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Montana. After earning her Ph.D. From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2019, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Health Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. She uses qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods to study interpersonal communication in the context of chronic illness — particularly illness identity, disclosure, and social support. She has authored (and co-authored) more than a dozen peer-reviewed research manuscripts in journals such as Communication Monographs, Health Communication, Personal Relationships and Patient Education and Counseling. Before entering Academia, she worked as a print journalist for several small town/suburban newspapers, and as an internal communication manager for Fairview Health Services (the largest healthcare system in the Twin Cities) and U.S. Bank. Learn more about her work at hvoorhees.com.
Room facilitators:
Kevin Wright, PhD
Professor
Health communication, social media and interpersonal relationships, life span communication, and interpersonal issues in health communication
Dr. Wright received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He has focused much of his research on social support processes and health outcomes in both face-to-face and computer-mediated contexts.
Xiaoquan Zhao, PhD
Professor
Health communication, persuasion, media effects, information seeking, tobacco prevention, and climate change communication
Xiaoquan Zhao received his Ph.D. (2005) from the Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on health message design and effects, evaluation of public communication campaigns, health information seeking, information disparities affecting vulnerable populations, news effects on health and risk perceptions, and the role of the self in health behavior and persuasive communication.