peopleRachel Smith
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Email: ras57@psu.edu
Phone: 814-863-0030
Fax: 814-863-7986
Office: 318 Sparks
Research
I investigate social influences in health communication. My specific CIDD-related interests include:
- Social influences in disease dynamics (e.g., transmission, survivorship, and prevention)
- Impacts of social influence (e.g., support, norms, and stigma) on communicators' susceptibility and immunity
- Identifying critical people within social networks and features of communication messages which facilitate and inhibit message diffusion and behavioral adoption
- Identifying features of critical information points in social networks involved in managing infectious disease
Recent work
Under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, we used social network information and community characteristics to:
- Design and evaluate communication efforts to limit HIV transmission
- Increase testing and treatment
- Increase support for those living with HIV and their dependents
CIDD-related teaching
CAS 557: Health communication
This course examines models of health communication and provides experience in making decisions about planning, implementing, and evaluating theory-driven interventions.