Education and professional background

Courtesy of The Media School at Indiana University

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As a doctoral candidate at Indiana University Media School, my primary research is on health communication; more specifically, the effects of different types of media portrayals of mental illness on the audience. My dissertation, "Beyond stigma: Developing and testing a scale of perceived trivialization of mental illness," will first create a measure of trivialization and then empirically test it in an experimental design. The experiment will highlight user-generated content via social media that discusses OCD and ADHD.

While at Indiana University, I have also had the opportunity to serve as an Instructor of Record and Associate Instructor, gaining valuable teaching experience.

Prior to beginning my doctorate, I earned my B.A. in journalism from Ohio Northern University, where my focus was on news writing and graphic design. I served as an editor and reporter for the campus newspaper and worked as a general assignment reporter with The Lima News and The Ada Herald. I earned my M.A. in journalism from the University of Memphis where I also worked in the advertising production office of the student-run newspaper and as a teaching assistant on campus, alongside a corporate communications internship. After my master’s, I worked as the marketing and social media communications manager at an insurance company in Northeastern Ohio.

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