Erica Weintraub Austin (Ph.D., 1989, Stanford University) is a professor of communication at Washington State University and is widely published on media literacy, family communication and health issues. Her research focuses on the uses of media in decision making and social development. Topics include the interplay of media and parental influences in children's decisions about health, politics and social reality. Dr. Austin also studies political decision making and disaffection among adults. She has served as an advisor to the federal government and organizations nationwide on media literacy issues. She received the 2001 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the 2005 Public Relations Educator of the Year award from the Greater Spokane Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. She was the recipient of the Samuel H. Smith Leadership Award from Washington State University in 2008. eaustin@wsu.edu

Erica Weintraub Austin
(Director)

Bruce E. Pinkleton (Ph.D., 1992, Michigan State University) is a professor of communication at Washington State University. His research program focuses on the role of individual motivations and information source use in individuals' decision-making processes, and the behavioral outcomes associated with message exposure. This includes, for example, examining the relationship of political campaign strategies and techniques to citizens' political decision making and participation. He also investigates decision making in other contexts, such as health communication campaigns, and has conducted a number of studies to evaluate heath campaign effectiveness. He is coauthor of Strategic Public Relations Management and is widely published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Political Communication, Pediatrics, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, the Journal of Advertising, Communication Research, and Mass Communication and Society. His research has been sponsored by the Associated Press-Seattle, the American Legacy Foundation, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, and the Alcoholic Beverage and Medical Research Foundation. He received the 2007 Public Relations Educator of the Year award from the Greater Spokane Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. pink@wsu.edu

Bruce E. Pinkleton
(Co-Director)

Douglas Blanks Hindman (Ph.D., 1994, University of Minnesota) is an associate professor of communication at Washington State University where he teaches courses in telecommunications and new communication technologies. His research focuses on the social antecedents of health communication such as community readiness, health disparities, and structural pluralism. His work is published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Mass Communication & Society, Health Education Research, Journal of Radio Studies, Mass media, social control, and social change: A macrosocial perspective, and in the International Encyclopedia of Communication. dhindman@wsu.edu

Douglas Blanks Hindman

Stacey J.T. Hust (Ph.D., 2005, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an assistant professor of communication at Washington State University. Her research explores how the mass media can be used for health promotion through strategies such as entertainment education and media advocacy. She also investigates the media's effects on sexual and reproductive health and substance abuse prevention. She has earned awards for her research, which has been published as book chapters and journal articles. Her research has been published in Mass Communication & Society, Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Journal of International Advertising, Women & Health Journal, and Public Relations Review. Her research has been sponsored by the United States Department of Education, Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and the Washington State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program. Since 2006 she has been the co-chair of the WSU Campus Campaign Against Sexual Assault. sjhust@wsu.edu

Stacey J.T. Hust

Changmin Yan (Ph.D., 2008, Pennsylvania State University) is an assistant professor of communication at Washington State University. Broadly speaking, his research centers around media psychology, persuasion and methodology. He is particularly interested in exploring the roles of emotion and motivational systems in strategic communication campaigns. His recent projects have looked at the interactions of emotion, motivation, and message features, such as framing, in health and environmental communication contexts. In addition, in his latest work, Dr. Yan has tested different models of the affect-motivation relationship. He has also investigated methodological issues in measuring the affective and cognitive processing of strategic health communication messages. His work has appeared in the Journal of Communication. Before joining WSU, Dr. Yan was an assistant professor of communication and journalism and a cooperating assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maine, Orono. changminyan@wsu.edu

Changmin Yan

Chunbo “Richard” Ren

Chunbo Ren is a doctoral student in communication at Washington State University. As a research assistant in the Consortium, he is working with Dr. Hust on a sexual assault prevention campaign and neuroscience literacy survey. Richard’s research interest focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention, especially HIV stigma and media intervention to reduce stigma. In summer 2009 he received an internship at the China CDC and worked with the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, China CDC and China Alliance of People Living with HIV and AIDS. Before joining WSU, he worked as a PR consultant in Beijing, China, for ten years. chunbo_ren@wsu.edu

Ming Lei

Ming Lei is a doctoral student in communication at Washington State University. His research focuses on utilizing mass media as a strategy to promote public health. In particular, he is interested in using entertainment media to promote reproductive health and substance abuse prevention. Another area of his research interests is using psychometrics methods to construct and evaluate measurements in mass media and public health. ming_lei@wsu.edu

Jessica Fitts

Jessica Fitts is a second year master’s student in communication at Washington State University. She is interested in media effects related to health communication. Jessica is currently working on her master’s thesis, which looks at the effects of ambiguous alcohol advertisements on attitudes and perceptions related to drinking. This research is being funded by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program at WSU. Jessica, with her advisor Stacey Hust, has done previous work on the self-regulation of alcohol advertising that was presented at the AEJMC 2008 conference and was also funded by ADARP. Jessica also participated in a sexual assault prevention campaign by serving as a content editor. jessica_fitts@wsu.edu

Cassie Norman

Cassie Norman is a master’s student of communication at Washington State University. In addition to being a research assistant in the Consortium, she is a teaching assistant for Com 295 Media Writing. As a health communication scholar, her research focuses on the use of media advocacy for health promotion campaigns. She participates in a sexual assault prevention campaign as a content editor. She also serves as the GPSA district representative for the College of Communication, where she holds the position of director of communication. Upon receiving her degree, she plans to work for a government or non-profit health organization. cmnorman@wsu.edu