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 2024-2025 media team members can be found below:

Co-Chairs

Sushma Kumble
Towson University
skumble@towson.edu

Sushma Kumble is an associate professor of public relations at Towson University. Her primary research interest is in health and science communication focusing on big data and computational methods to understand a variety of different conversations including the circulation of health related misinformation. 

CJ Calabrese
Clemson University
cgcalab@clemson.edu

CJ Calabrese is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Clemson University and a faculty scholar at the Clemson University School of Health Research. His research examines the communication effects and processes through which new media and online technologies influence human behaviors and decision-making. For more information, check out his website at https://www.cjcalabrese.com/.

Team Members

Sedona Chinn
University of Wisconsin-Madison
schinn@wisc.edu

Sedona Chinn is an assistant professor in the Life Sciences Communication department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research investigates how individuals make sense of competing claims about science, health, and the environment, as well as how social influence via new media affect perceptions of credibility and expertise.

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. 

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). 

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.

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.

Nicole O’Donnell
Washington State
nicole.odonnell@wsu.edu

Nicole O’Donnell, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. She specializes in media psychology and health promotion. Her primary research focuses on effective message design for health and environmental campaigns, with an interest in understanding how audiences engage with educational, inspiring, and entertaining campaign messages.

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.