Graduate Student Committee
The ComSHER Division hosts a graduate student committee to support new initiatives that provide assistance and mentorship to graduate students within the division. The 2024-2025 graduate student committee members can be found below:
Co-Chairs
Hongjie Tang
School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University
thj22@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Hongjie Tang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University. Focusing on communication and persuasive technology, science communication and health communication, his recent works primarily explores multi-level factors influencing online misinformation response, along with the intersection of AI-enabled campaigns on health and environmental issues (e.g., climate change). His research has appeared on Information, Communication & Society, Public Understanding of Science, Journal of Health Communication, etc.
Luna Pittet Gonzalez
College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida
lpittetgonzalez@ufl.edu
Luna is a doctoral student at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. Her research interests revolve around factors affecting the public’s perceptions of emergencies and their resulting behaviors. Her work places a strong emphasis on quantitative approaches, particularly favoring experiments, online surveys, and computational content analyses. Recent work includes analyses of the impact of artificial intelligence as the source of emergency alerts.
Committee Members
Aidan M. Craig Sundine
Oregon State University
craigsua@oregonstate.edu
Aidan M. Craig Sundine is a second-year master's student in the School of Communication at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on the role of message efficacy in environmental and climate communication, specifically regarding the adoption of conscious consumer behavior. Aidan is involved in environmental conflict work having recently spoken at the 2024 Gobeshona Conference regarding participatory communication and climate change.
Eylül Yel
Purdue University
eyel@purdue.edu
Eylül is a doctoral student in the Lamb School of Communication studying health communication and media effects. Her research revolves around health communication and media effects. More specifically, drawing from both qualitative and quantitative methods, she studies how different types of media impact people’s views, attitudes, and behaviors in health and risk contexts. Her work has been recently published in New Media & Society, Communication Reports and Journal of Health Communication.
Jinxu Li
Department of Communication & Journalism, Texas A&M University
ljinxu@tamu.edu
Jinxu Li is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Texas A&M University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of mental health communication, persuasion, and emerging media. Her work has been published in a variety of journals, including Health Communication, Digital Health, International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, and Health Promotion International. Moreover, she has received the top student-led paper award from the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication.
Mahedi Hasan
Texas Tech University
mahehasa@ttu.edu
Mahedi Hasan is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. His research focuses on organizational crisis communication and the role of Communities of Practice within big science organizations. Mahedi is involved in NSF-funded projects like CI Compass and CI4resilience, exploring how large-scale scientific organizations manage crises and share innovations. In addition to his academic work, he is the student lead of the Innovation Diffusion Lab at Texas Tech for the 2024-25 session.
Rudy Kim
University of Maryland
rudykim@umd.edu
Rudy Sunrin Kim is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, specializing in health and strategic communication. Her research interests center on mental health and well-being, exploring how communication influences these areas. Recent work includes investigations into message effects, framing, social support, and stigma, contributing to a deeper understanding of how communication can be used to enhance health outcomes.
Xi Liu
Syracuse University
xliu123@syr.edu
Xi Liu is a doctoral student at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her research focuses on public relations, health communication, and science communication, with recent work exploring science journalism and corporate social advocacy on environmental issues like climate change. Her research has been published in the Journal of Public Relations Research.