Kathryn Greene
Distinguished Professor of Communication
Faculty, PhD COM Faculty
Biography
Kathryn Greene's research focuses on how communication can be used to enhance health, especially for at-risk populations. While getting information to people is relatively easy, she makes contributions about how to influence people’s decisions to act on and manage information. She models how to engage audiences sufficiently so they care about the content of messages and, in turn, take action. She studies how to facilitate change in two interrelated behaviors: communication behavior (disclosure) and health prevention behaviors. She blends theory with issues of social significance, addresses meaningful health questions, and provides foundations for health and policy decision making.
Greene’s scholarship builds and tests theory. She studies when and how people choose to share health information with others. Understanding how people make decisions about what to share and how people produce these messages can increase support as well as reduce stigma and negative outcomes that lead to avoiding prevention behaviors (e.g., HIV testing or cancer screening). In the arena of message processing, maximizing youth audience engagement can reduce avoidance and best utilize limited resources. Her substance prevention programs have been designated as “evidence-based ‘effective’” by SAMHSA.
Greene has received funding from NIH, including NIDA and NCI. She is an ICA fellow, winning prestigious awards including from the interpersonal communication and health communication divisions of ICA and NCA. She continues her research in disclosure in interpersonal health communication contexts as well as developing interventions targeting adolescent risk behaviors. This research is focused on health inequities, often leveraging community-engaged and mixed research methods.
Education
Ph.D., Speech Communication, The University of Georgia
M.A., Speech Communication, The University of Georgia
B.A., Speech Communication, The University of Georgia