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

Ciera Kirkpatrick
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ciera.kirkpatrick@unl.edu

Ciera Kirkpatrick is an assistant professor of advertising & public relations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism & Mass Communications. Her research uses experimental designs to examine how message features (content and structure) interact with audience characteristics to influence the cognitive and emotional processing of health messages and, in turn, the effects of the messages on outcomes like attitude and health behavior change. She’s especially interested in social comparison and social media’s effects on mothers’ mental health.

Team Members

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 women’s health, mental health, and substance use. 

Laura Crosswell
University of Nevada, Reno
lcrosswell@unr.edu

Laura Crosswell, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno. Her research examines the psychosocial mechanisms of health messaging and media effects, with recent work on vaccination communication, pharmaceutical advertising, and audience responses to emerging health technologies. 

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.

Ashley McKenzie
Clemson University
ashmcke@clemson.edu

Dr. Ashley Hedrick McKenzie is an assistant professor of health communication at Clemson University. Her research explores the relationship between attitudes and beliefs— such as stigma, gender roles, victim blaming, rape myths, and belief in misinformation— and their impact on a women’s health issues, including cervical and breast cancer prevention, sexual violence prevention, and opioid use disorder among pregnant women. She is particularly interested in using online spaces and digital health interventions to change attitudes, beliefs, and health outcomes. 

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.