Communication

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Abney, Drew

Associate Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2023 OIBR Rising Star Award Recipient
2020-22 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | drew.abney@uga.edu

Research Interests include sensorimotor development, human interaction, emotion regulation, time series analysis, and language development

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Acheme, Doris

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
website | doris.acheme@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Intergroup and intercultural communication; Social identity negotiation; Language attitudes; Racial ideologies

Mary Ager

Ager, Mary

Associate Professor, Social Work
website | ager@uga.edu

Research Interests: Poverty, social policy, consumer debt, and social media

Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn

Ahn, Sun Joo (Grace)

Professor, Advertising
website | sjahn@uga.edu

Research Interests include Interactive digital media; communications; social interactions; virtual experiences; STEM

Jason Anastasopoulos

Anastasopoulos, Jason

Associate Professor, Political Science and Public Administration and Policy
website | ljanastas@uga.edu

Research Interests:  American politics, bureaucracy, Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and casual inference

Analisa Arroyo

Arroyo, Analisa

Professor, Communication Studies
2015-17 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | arroyo@uga.edu

Research Interests include intergenerational transmission of body image issues and its relation to mental and physical health outcomes (e.g. depression, eating disorders, overweight/obesity, exercise, dieting, etc.) among grandmother-mother-daughter triads

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Azevedo, Renato Ferreira Leitao

Assistant Professor, Institute of Gerontology / EPIBIO
website | renato.azevedo@uga.edu

Research Interests: Aging and Gerontology, Assessment and Evaluation, Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Chronic Disease, Cognition, Communication, Computational Methods, Education and Learning, Emotion, Exercise, Experimental Methods, Media, Mental Health, Mental Illness and Disorders, Physical Health and Well-being, Risk Behaviors, Social Psychology, STEM, Survey Methods

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Baker III, Thomas

Professor, Kinesiology 
2013-15 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | tab3@uga.edu

Research Interests: how commercial laws influence sport marking, and on risk management in two specialized areas: (a) preventing sexual abuse in youth sports and (b) terrorism management at sports facilities

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Bauer, Brian

Assistant Professor, Psychology 
2022-2024 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | brian.bauer@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Suicide; Behavioral economics; Decision

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Bush, Bryana

Lecturer, Physiology & Pharmacology
website | b.bush@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Assessment and Evaluation, Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Cognition, Communication, Diversity, Education and Learning, Higher Education, STEM

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Cacciatore, Michael

Associate Professor and Assistant Department Head, Advertising & Public Relations
website | mcacciat@uga.edu

Research Interests include science communication, risk communication, and framing

Rachel Cagliani

Cagliani, Rachel

Associate Professor, Communication Sciences & Special Education
website | rcagliani@uga.edu

Research Interests include autism spectrum disorder, communication, and  behavior analysis

Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

Cahnmann-Taylor, Melisa

Meigs Professor, Language and Literacy Education
website | cahnmann@uga.edu

Research Interests include TESOL, bilingual education, foreign language education, poetry, and theatre

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Cooper, Alexandra

Post-doctoral Researcher, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
website | alexandra.cooper@uga.edu

Research Interests include motor control, decision-making, neuroimaging, and non-invasive brain stimulation

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Dalton, Sarah Grace

Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences & Special Education

website | sgdalton@uga.edu

Research Interests: Aging and Gerontology, Assessment and Evaluation, Cognition, Communication, Experimental Methods, Neuroscience

Erin Dolan

Dolan, Erin

Meigs Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2023 OIBR Lillian Eby Mentoring Award Recipient
website | eldolan@uga.edu

Research Interests include research training, mentorship, and career development

Nate Evans

Evans, Nate

Associate Professor, Advertising
website | nevens4@uga.edu

Research Interests include health communication, vaccine hesitancy, and consumers interaction with/and processing messaging

Jeong-Yeob Han

Han, Jeong-Yeob

Associate Professor, Advertising
website | jeonghan@uga.edu

Research Interests include eHealth communication, social media, online communities, cancer communication, and media effects

Itai Himelboim

Himelboim, Itai

Professor, Advertising & Public Relations
Thomas C. Dowden Professor, Media Analytics
website | itai@uga.edu

Research Interests include social networks, social network analysis, political communication, and health communication

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Howe, Chad

Professor, Linguistics/Romance Languages/Latin American and Caribbean Studies
website | chowe@uga.edu

Research Interests: Communication, Computational Methods, Diversity, Immigration, Social Psychology

Kristina Jaskyte Bahr

Jaskyte Bahr, Kristina

Professor, Social Work
website | kjaskyte@uga.edu

Research Interests include innovation, design thinking, creativity, and teams

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Jin, Yan

Professor and Assistant Department Head, Public Relations
website | yanjin@uga.edu

Research Interests include crisis, risk, conflict, misinformation, emotion, and social media

Hannah Krimm

Krimm, Hannah

Associate Professor, Communication Sciences & Special Education
website | hannah.krimm@uga.edu

Research Interests include developmental language disorders, reading, writing, and dyslexia

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Kurtz, Hilda

Department Head and Professor, Geography
website | hkurtz@uga.edu

Research Interests include:  Communication, Environment and Ecosystems

Mengqi Lao

Liao, Mengqi

Assistant Professor, Advertising & Public Relations
website | mengqi.liao@uga.edu

Research Interests: Communication, Experimental Methods, Media

Rebecca Lieberman-Betz

Lieberman-Betz, Rebecca

Professor, Communication Sciences & Special Education
website | rglb@uga.edu

Research Interests include special needs, parent responsibility, communication development, autism spectrum disorder, developmental disabilities, early childhood, and special education

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Lu, Peng

Assistant Professor, Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication
website | penglu@uga.edu

Research Interests include:  Communication, Education and Learning, Emotion, Environment and Ecosystems, Experimental Methods, Food & Nutrition, Higher Education, STEM

McFarlane, Soroya

McFarlane, Soroya

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
2021-23 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | soroyamcfarlane@uga.edu

Research Interests include health communication, health disparities, community-engaged research, and culture

Glen Nowak

Nowak, Glen

Professor, Advertising Public Relations
Co-director, Grady College Center for Health & Risk Communications
website | gnowak@uga.edu

Research Interests include health communication, infectious and vaccine preventable disease communication

Dax Ovid

Ovid, Dax

Assistant Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology
website | dax@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Curriculum studies; Higher education; Instructor talk; Study abroad

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Peng, Yilang

Associate Professor, Financial Planning, Housing, & Consumer Economics
website | yilang.peng@uga.edu

Research Interests: Social media; media effects; AI; computational social science; computer vision

Ivanka Pjesivac

Pjesivac, Ivanka

Associate Professor, Journalism
website | ivanka@uga.edu

Research Interests include media effects, international and cross cultural communication, and virtual reality journalism

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Ratcliff, Chelsea

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
2021-23 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | chelsea.ratcliff@uga.edu

Research Interests include health communication, science communication, message design, precision medicine, and research recruitment

Glenna Read

Read, Glenna

Associate Professor, Advertising & Public Relations
2022-2024 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | glenna.read@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Video surveillance; Video interpretation bias; Media effects; Social representation; Message processing; Decision-making

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Salmi, Roberta

Assistant Professor, Anthropology
website | rsalmi@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Cognition, Communication, Culture

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Schlesinger, Ari

Assistant Professor, School of Computing
website | ari.schlesinger@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Communication, Computational Methods, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Ethnography, Gender, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Identity, Media, Organizations, Policy, Regulation, and Compliance, Sexuality and Sexual Identity, STEM, Work and Occupations

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Sheagley, Geoffrey

Associate Professor, Political Science
website | geoff.sheagley@uga.edu

Research Interests include political psychology, political polarization, decision-making, and political knowledge

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Terui, Sachiko

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
2022-2024 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | sterui@uga.edu

Research Interests include HIV, health literacy, health disparities, intervention, and community

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Verma, Amitabh

Associate Professor, Environment + Design
website | averma@uga.edu

Research Interests include drawing, creativity, mental health, urban design, anxiety management, and architecture

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Winkelman Richardson, Evin

Assistant Research Scientist, Human Development and Family Science

website | evinr@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Communication, Conflict, Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships

Bart Wojdynski

Wojdynski, Bart

Professor, Journalism
website | bartw@uga.edu

Research Interests include design, visual attention, news, advertising, and effects of images on persuasion

Theresa Wright

Wright, Theresa

Sr. Public Service Associate, Carl Vinson Institute of Government
website | tawright@uga.edu

Research Interests include program evaluation, QUAL data collection, performance measurement, and survey research

Henry Young

Young, Henry

Professor and Department Head, Clinical & Administrative Pharmacy
website | hnyoung@uga.edu

Research Interests include health services research, medication use, health communication, minority, and underserved populations