College Hosts Health & Risk Communication: Day of Innovation

MSU's College of Communication Arts and Sciences will host the first Health & Risk Communication Day of Innovation from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27 2019, featuring a panel of industry experts, a networking luncheon and the annual Bettinghaus Endowed Lecture with speaker Kami Silk, Ph.D.

The Day of Innovation offers opportunities to learn about the newest innovations and insights on health and risk communication.

The event will begin with the Insights & Innovation panel discussion, which will bring MSU alumni and faculty together to discuss the latest trends in health and risk communication. Panelists include:

  • Anna Melville, Director of Population Health at Sparrow Health System, and HRC MA alumna
  • Alexander Plum, Director of Innovation at Henry Ford Health System, and MSU alumnus
  • Monique Turner, Ph.D., ComArtSci Professor and Communication Department Chair

The Bettinghaus Endowed Lecture will take place from 2:30 to 4pm, Friday, in CAS 145. Silk, the keynote speaker, previously worked as a professor in the Department of Communication and Director of the M.A. program in Health and Risk Communication at Michigan State University, as well as the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Programs. During her time at Michigan State, she was also a Graduate Director, a Lilly Teaching Fellow and a Big Ten Alliance Leadership Fellow.

Silk earned a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Georgia, and her M.A. in Communication as well as her B.A. in English and Mass Communication from Bloomsburg University. Silk teaches organizational communication, health communication, persuasion, and research focused courses at the University of Delaware. Her topics of research are focused on general health communication with a specialization in developing effective health messages for the public that are sensitive to health literacy issues.

Silk is currently a co-investigator for an NCI and NIEHS funded grant that investigates the links between the environment and breast cancer. With an emphasis on adolescent lifestyle factors, nutrition and exercise, as a strategy for risk reduction, Silk is developing health messages for mothers of adolescent girls. She will be talking on these issues as the keynote speaker.

The Health and Risk Communication Day of Innovation will take place at the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, in CAS 145.

By Alex Perkins and Lauren Hullum

Attend the Lecture

Check out the HRC Day of Innovation