The News Archives

The CHC launched a limited podcast series for health communication researchers, educators, and practitioners — Talking About Talking About Health.

We've launched a new HCTS course in partnership with TEPHI — providing in-the-moment tools and frame works to debrief stressful situations with individuals or teams.

We've launched a new HCTS course in partnership with TEPHI — a crash course in understanding types of conflicting information, why research can sometimes seem contradictory, and how to start civilized conversations about misunderstood health topics.

Say hello to Jennifer Graham, the CHC's new administrative assistant!

Meet Lindsay Bouchacourt, Ph.D., the CHC's newest research associate.

This HCTS course explores health disparities affecting the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community and ways to help bridge those gaps.

HCLI 2023 welcomed plenty of first timers and familiar faces alike. We hosted an impressive lineup of speakers from a wide range of organizations to share their insights in health communication and leadership.

Explore the definition of equity science and how it plays a vital role in health communication research and practice to help achieve health equity for all.

Explore the importance of visuals in health campaigns, and learn best practices for making design choices in your work.

This course will help you think through common health communication challenges and come up with unique solutions backed up by research and practice.

In partnership with the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute, this course covers the fundamental aspects of pandemic preparedness at an organizational level.

The CHER Grant Program has named the recipients for the 2022-2023 funding cycle.

Say hello to Laura Anaya Rodriguez, the CHC's new program coordinator!

Introducing Lauren Kriss, the CHC's new senior program coordinator!

Meet Charu, the newest member of the CHC team!

Say hello to Anna LoSecco, our newest team member!

Today the Center for Health Communication joined a growing number of Texas businesses by becoming designated as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite.

Please welcome Lara O'Toole, our newest team member!

Learn the basics of health literacy, explore assessment tools, and discover the right tools and strategies to apply to meet your clients' unique health communication needs.

Explore the roles health equity and communication play in the quality of healthcare outcomes and addressing health and racial disparities among communities of color.

Better understand the complexities of patient-provider conversations about pain and opioids in this online, self-paced course.

Say hello to Ellen Shin, our new graphic designer!

Please welcome Asha Thompson, our new senior graphic designer!

Introducing Natalie Tarrant, our newest graphic designer!

Say hello to Jeremy Martin, our new senior program coordinator!

Introducing Lauren Pezzullo, the newest CHC team member!

Say hello to Chris Beeler, the CHC's new creative director!

An introduction to research highlighting the role emotions play in how people process health information and practical implications of that research for developing message-based interventions.

This course focuses on how better communication can improve patient health outcomes and avoid provider burnout.

Introducing Kaitlin Berns, the CHC's new program coordinator!

Say hello to Olubunmi Obayemi, the CHC's new research associate!

Say hello to Weijia Shi, our new research associate!

Explore steps and techniques to help you design audience-centered and evidence-based health messages.

Say hello to Catherine Cunningham, the CHC's new research associate!

Please welcome Melanie Susswein, our new program manager.

Say hello to Alyssa Daniell, our new student intern!

The CHC has launched the first course in the Health Communication Training Series — Mental Health, Stigma, and Communication. This course highlights the importance of communicating effectively about mental health and the impact stigma has on the patient-provider relationship.

Please welcome Paloma Gray, the CHC's new senior program coordinator.

On the heels of a global pandemic that illuminated every facet of our public health systems, health communicators have their work cut out for them in the new decade ahead. It’s undeniable the need for effective and compassionate health communicators is at an all-time high.

Say hello to Eileen Artigas, our new program coordinator!

Looking back on 2020, this is certainly not the year we could have imagined around the Center for Health Communication (CHC). The importance of effectively communicating about health has seldom been so clear, and the CHC had many accomplishments to celebrate even amidst the uncertainty and challenges this year presented.

Please welcome Shayna Brewer, our newest graphic designer!

Say hello to our new online education program manager, Komal Gandhi!

Hosting a conference during the spread of COVID-19 posed unique challenges. With the determination of our staff this year, we were able to pivot from the usual three-day event on campus into one six-hour virtual conference. And you know what? We had fun doing it.

With support from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, a team at the UT Center for Health Communication has created a whitepaper and curriculum modules—all available to the public for free—around one important question: What are the best ways to train healthcare professionals and journalists about mental health and mental illness communication... and why should we?

Please welcome Billy Table, Ph.D., the CHC's new postdoctoral fellow.

Earlier this year, the CHC began a new project and partnership with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso Department of Family and Community Medicine to develop messages for social media and text messages to promote HPV vaccination.

We’re a month into a new year and a few weeks into the spring semester, which is a good moment to look at what has already happened in 2020 and consider what’s coming this year.

Say hello to Eddie Silva, the CHC's first ever web developer!

Say hello to Zach Cohen-Ford, the CHC's new program coordinator!

Please welcome Nick Brothers, our new copywriter, to the CHC!

Say hello to Ryann Freeman, the CHC's new program coordinator!

Two weeks ago, we enjoyed the major public launch of the Father’s Playbook app – an app designed to get expectant fathers involved in prenatal health and beyond.

Please welcome graphic designer Merian Karpen to the CHC team!

Say hello to our newest graphic designer, Nicole Kirschten!

As we enter the second year of our 2-year theme on mental health and health communication, we’re about to pursue several new projects including a whitepaper on communicating about mental health and developing education materials for health and communication professionals.

Thanks to a grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the CHC has begun production on a whitepaper meant to advance the American conversation about mental health.

A group of Health Communication Leadership Institute alumni presented a spotlight session at the 2019 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media titled Lessons in Leadership: Tips and Strategies for Health Communication Professionals.

Fearless. Risk Taker. Creative. Empathetic. Great listener. We asked participants at this summer’s Health Communication Leadership Institute (HCLI) to tell us the essential qualities of a health communication leader.

We developed a campaign that was focused on hand hygiene as an approach that could protect everyone: patients, hospital workers, and even the family and friends of hospital workers.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the CHC hosted its Mental Health and Health Communication Symposium. The symposium was part of a 2-year theme on mental health and health communication, which was intended to invite in new partners from around UT-Austin and the community to engage at the intersection of mental health and health communication.

In our second year of the CHER program, we had another competitive cohort of applicants. We funded two excellent projects that again bring together faculty from the far reaches of campus to pursue projects that will advance health communication research and practice.

The CHC is a full semester into a 2-year theme on mental health and health communication and as we look to the spring, we’re pursuing a new and ambitious event — a 1-day symposium on mental health and health communication.

For the past year, we’ve been working on a project to promote the use of the Texas PMP as a tool for prescribers to make appropriate prescribing decisions.

The CHC has launched a pilot version of the Father's Playbook app — designed to get expectant fathers involved in prenatal health and beyond.

As we stare down the start of the fall semester, we might be hitting a new phase of the CHC’s existence: one of ongoing evolution rather than radical revolution.

David Ring, M.D., Ph.D., along with colleagues Joost Kortlever, M.D., and Laura Brown, Ph.D. have begun research with the help of the CHER Grant Program to identify important elements of empathetic communication between a patient and their doctor.

One CHER grant funded project — The CARE Study: Communicating About Research with Empathy — begins research to investigate fears and mythologies surrounding clinical trials.

While we’re still very much in the planning stages of our 2-year theme on mental health and health communication, it’s getting easier to see not only how the theme might work, but also how research launched as a result might affect sweeping changes in mental health care.

Through the CHER grant program, researchers at Moody and Dell Med together will find ways to better tell these stories and to slowly shift healthcare away from a reactive, metric-bound mindset toward a mindset of empathy, preemptive care, and prevention.

A reflection on the first year of the CHER Grant Program and a collection of student-written articles documenting the inaugural grantee projects.

This past week was the Center for Health Communication’s fourth annual Health Communication Leadership Institute and this time around, HCLI has truly hit its stride.

A look into the upcoming Health Communication Leadership Institute — the CHC's premier professional development event.

A look inside how the CHC's 2-year theme on mental health and health communication came to be.

The CHC is proud to announce the launch of a new 2-year theme: Mental Health and Health Communication. The theme will begin in Fall 2018 and run throughout the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years.

CHC Director Mike Mackert reflects on the 2017-2018 academic year and what's on the horizon for the Center.

CHC Director Mike Mackert shares highlights of the first year of the Eliminate Tobacco Use Initiative.

CHC Director Mike Mackert shares updates and highlights of the Center's work on the Texas Prescription Monitoring Program project.

CHC Director Mike Mackert reflects on where the Center for Health Communication (CHC) is going, how to best organize the team to get great work done, and how that organization can also keep the work fun and invigorating.

CHC Director Mike Mackert reflects on the first full academic semester of the Center for Health Communication as a joint academic center between the Moody College of Communication and Dell Medical School.

CHC Director Mike Mackert shares updates on the Texas Prescription Monitoring Program project from the fall semester.

The CHER Grant Program awarded approximately $20,000 in its inaugural 2017-18 grant cycle for three projects.

The CHC is now working as part of a team, supported by state funding, to build a mobile app that could become a platform for engaging men across Texas on issues related to prenatal health and fatherhood more broadly.

CHC Director Mike Mackert shares a personal anecdote highlighting how individual experiences can serve as inspiration or illustrate the importance of health communication in improving people's health and wellness.

Mike Mackert shares his thoughts on the future of the CHC as a joint academic center of the Moody College of Communication and Dell Medical School.

CHC Assistant Director Jessica Hughes Wagner shares highlights and memorable moments from the third annual Health Communication Leadership Institute.

CHC Director Mike Mackert reflects on previous Health Communication Leadership Institutes and what the third cohort has in store this year.

On Monday, April 24, the CHC welcomed Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee to The University of Texas at Austin for the 2017 McGovern Lecture in Health Communication.

Newly appointed Director of the UT Center for Health Communication Dr. Mike Mackert shares his thoughts and vision for the future of the CHC.