Media Team

The Media Team handles all media promotion of the ComSHER division, its members, and related activities. The team handles the division's main community site, social media handles (Facebook, X/Twitter, and BlueSky), and newsletters, and coordinates with the Leadership Team and division members for the dissemination of announcements, shout-outs, and other division-related information. The 2025-2026 media team members can be found below:

Chair

Leti Couto
DePaul
lcoutofa@depaul.edu

Leti Couto is an assistant professor of PR and advertising at DePaul University - College of Communication. Her research focuses on health-related message development and evaluation, with areas of concentration on mental health, sexual health, and substance use. 

Team Members

Sisi Hu
Arkansas
sisih@uark.edu

Sisi Hu is an assistant professor of advertising at the University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media. Her research employs quantitative methods to test effective health and science communication strategies. Topics she has recently examined include narrative persuasion and health-related prosocial communication (e.g., organ donation registration and clinical trial participation). 

Alexandrea Matthews
Towson University
alexandreamatthews@towson.edu

Alexandrea Matthews is an assistant professor of public relations at Towson University. Her research examines strategic message design and the effects of strategic messages on attitudes and behavior with a focus on science and the environment. Her research program investigates the persuasive message techniques that can effectively shape individuals’ support for, and engagement with, science and environmental policy and science-based initiatives.

Shiyu Yang
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
syang53@utk.edu

Shiyu Yang is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her research focuses on the intersection of science, media, and the public. Her work is particularly concerned with how algorithmically curated information environments reshape communication processes and how we can effectively connect with diverse audiences on important issues in science and democratic society. Her methodologies involve computational methods, surveys, experiments, and qualitative methods.

Namyeon Lee
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
namyeon.lee@uncp.edu

Namyeon Lee is an assistant professor of mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Her research uses quantitative methods to examine how people with little reason to trust institutions respond to messages about uncertain science and medicine, and how message design builds or erodes that trust. Her recent work includes vaccination, clinical trial recruitment, and public responses to emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles and cultured meat.

Dayeon Eom
University of Wisconsin, Madison
deom4@wisc.edu

Dayeon Eom is a Ph.D. candidate in Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on science and health communication, artificial intelligence, and public trust in digital media.

Belal Hossain
University of Kansas
belalmuntasir@ku.edu