Awards

Health Communication Division

Interest Group Awards

Listed here are awards given by the Interest Group to its members. Interests Groups are smaller communities within NCA's large membership that provide a range of resources including networking opportunities, Annual Convention programming, leadership opportunities, awards, and specialized information dissemination channels, among others.

Read more about this Interest Group.


Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Kathryn Greene
2022 Xiaoli Nan
2021 Elaine Wittenberg
2020 Daniel O'Keefe
2019 Michelle Miller-Day
2018 James P. Dillard
2017 Mohan Dutta
2016 Seth Noar
2015 Susan E. Morgan
2014 Linda Goldbold Kean
2013 Michael Slater
2012 Charles Salmon
2011 Sandi Smith
2010 K. “Vish” Vishwanath
2009 Teresa Thompson
2008 Charles K. Atkin
2007 Jon F. Nussbaum
2006 Donald J. Cegala
2005 Barbara F. Sharf
2004 Roxanne Parrott
2003 Richard Street
2002 Lewis Donohew
2000 Gary Kreps
1999 Everett Rogers
1998 Vicki S. Freimuth

Dale E. Brashers Distinguished Mentor Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Kathryn Greene
2021 Monique Mitchell Turner
2020 Mohan J. Dutta
2019 Elisia L. Cohen
2018 Kellie E. Carlyle
2017 Kami Silk
2016 Nancy Harrington
2015 Roxanne Parrott
2014 Gary Kreps
2013 Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath

Early Career Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Joris Van Ouytsel
2022 Qinghua Yang
2021 Satveer Kaur-Gill
2021 Sebastian Scherr
2020 Marleah Dean Kruzel
2020 Courtney L Scherr
2019 Katherine J. Head
2018 Kate C. Magsamen-Conrad
2017 Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn

Distinguished Book Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Kathryn Greene, Valerian J. Derlega, Gust A. Yep, & Sandra Petronio, Privacy and Disclosure of HIV in Interpersonal Relationships: A Sourcebook for Researchers and Practitioners, published by Routledge in 2003.
2021 Elaine Hsieh, Bilingual Health Communication: Working with Interpreters in Cross-Cultural Care, published by Routledge in 2016.
2020 Mohan J. Dutta, Communicating health: A culture-centered approach. Polity
2019 Bryan B. Whaley, University of San Francisco, Research Methods in Health Communication: Principles and Application (Edited book published in 2014 by Routledge)
2018 Elaine M. Wittenberg-Lyles, Joy V. Goldsmith, Betty Ferrell, and Sandra L. Ragen, Communication in palliative nursing (Oxford University Press, 2013)
2017 J. Blake Scott, Risky Rhetoric: AIDS and the Cultural Practices of HIV Testing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003)
2016 John Lynch, What are Stem Cells? Definitions at the intersection of science and politics (University of Alabama Press, 2011)
2015 Robin E. Jensen, Dirty words: The rhetoric of public sex education, 1870-1924 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010)
2013 Elaine Wittenberg-Lyles, Joy Goldsmith, Sandra L. Ragan, and Sandra Sanchez-Reilly, Communication as Comfort: Multiple Voices in Palliative Care (Routledge Press)
2012 Jay Baglia, The Viagra ad venture: Masculinity, media, and the performance of sexual health (New York: Peter Lang Publishing)
2011 Wayne Beach, A Natural History of Family Cancer: International Resources for Managing Illness (Hampton Press, 2009)
2010 Lynn M. Harter, Phyllis M. Japp, and Christina S. Beck, Narratives, Health, & Healing: Communication Theory, Research, & Practice (Routledge, 2005)

Distinguished Article Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Marleah Dean Kruzel, "“It’s not if I get cancer, it’s when I get cancer”: BRCA-Positive Patients’(Un)certain Health Experiences Regarding Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk," published in Social Science & Medicine in 2016.
2022 Marie C. Haverfield & Jennifer A. Theiss, “Parent’s Alcoholism Severity and Family Topic Avoidance About Alcohol as Predictors of Perceived Stigma Among Adult Children of Alcoholics: Implications for Emotional and Psychological Resilience,” published in Health Communication in 2016. 
2021 Daena J. Goldsmith & Kelsey Domann-Scholz;"The Meanings of 'Open Communication' Among Couples Coping with a Cardiac Event," published in Journal of Communication in 2013.
2020 Katharine J. Head, Seth M. Noar, Nicholas T. Iannarino, and Nancy Grant Harrington, "Efficacy of text messaging-based interventions for health promotion: a meta-analysis"
2019 Dr. Ambar Basu, University of South Florida “HIV AIDS and Subaltern Autonomous Rationality: A Call to Recenter Health Communication in Marginalized Sex Worker Spaces” (published in 2011, Communication Monographs)
2018 Rachel A. Smith, "Language of the lost: An explication of stigma communication" Communication Communication Theory, 17 (2007): 462-485
2017 Barbara F. Sharf, "Trailblazing healthcare: Institutionalizing and integrating complementary medicine," Patient Education and Counseling 89(2012): 434-438
2016 Maureen Keeley, “Final conversations: Survivor’s memorable messages concerning religious faith and spirituality,” Health Communication 16 (2004): 87-104
2015 Melanie A. Wakefield, Sarah Durkin, Matthew J. Spittal, Mohammad Siahpush, Michelle Scollo, Julie A. Simpson, Simon Chapman, Victoria White, David Hill, “Impact of tobacco control policies and mass media campaigns on monthly adult smoking prevalence,” American Journal of Public Health 98 (2008): 1443-1450
2014 James Dillard, and Lijang Shen, “On the Nature of Reactance and its Role in Persuasive Health Communication,” Communication Monograph 72 (2005): 144-168
2012 Brian Southwell and Marco Yzer, “The roles of interpersonal communication in mass media campaigns,” Communication Yearbook 31 (2008): 419-462
2011 Walid Afifi and Judith Weiner, “Seeking information about sexual health: Applying the theory of motivated information management,” Human Communication Research (2010): 32 (1), 35-57
2010 Maria K. Lapinski and Rajiv Rimal, “An explication of social norms,” Communication Theory (2005): 15, 127-147
2009 Elaine Wittenberg-Lyles, Joy Goldsmith, Sandra Sanchez-Reilly, and Sandra Ragan, “Communicating a terminal prognosis in a palliative care setting: Deficiencies in current communication training protocols,” Social Science & Medicine (2008): 66, 2356-65
2008 Daniel J. O’Keefe and Jakob D. Jensen, “The relative persuasiveness of gain-framed and loss-framed messages for encouraging disease prevention behaviors: A meta-analytic review,” Journal of Health Communication (2007): 12, 623-644

The Amanda Kundrat Annual Thesis of the Year Award

Year Award Winner
2018 Erendira Estrada, "Development of a Participatory Health Communication Intervention: An Ecological Approach to Reducing Rural Information Inequality and Health Disparities"
2015 Carly Danielson and Tara Emmers-Sommer, “Attributions and Coping Behaviors Communicated Among Bullied Students: An Analysis of Bullying Blogs”
2014 Dorothy Brown, “Communication networks of men with prostate cancer”
2013 Wendy Jacobs, “The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Cognitive Difficulties After Chemotherapy: Communication the Association Between Chemotherapy and Cognitive Difficulties May Result in Higher Complaint Reporting, But Increased Memory Performance for Cancer Patients High in Stigma Consciousness”
2012 Wan Chi Leung, “Third-person Effect & Rectifying Behaviors: Studying Antisocial and Prosocial Online Messages of Youth Drug Abuse”
2011 Mindawati Wijaya, “Influencing Children’s Food Consumption: Impact of Message Framing and Tailoring on Efficacy and Intention”
2010 Jennifer J. Moreland, “The Conceptualization and Communication of Risk Among Rural Appalachian Adolescents”
2009 Abigail Prestin, “Examining Subcomponents of Efficacy Judgments as Factors in Health Promotion Message Design”
2008 Jiyeon So, “Exploring Contributions of Genre-Specific Media Toward Perceptions of Personal and Social Risk of Smoking Among South Koreans”
2007 Sarah Gibson, “The Role of Context and Rationalizations in Understanding Behavior in Relation to HIV Prevention in Rural Malawi: A Qualitative Analysis”
2003 Lijiang Shen
2002 Amanda L. Kundrat, "The Impact of Invisible Illness on Identity and Contextual Age Across the Life Span"
1999 Lisa Murray-Johnson
1998 Ashley Duggan, "Understanding Subjective Components of Illness: Physicians' Nonverbal Rapport Building Behaviors and Patient Willingness to Disclose Information about Self and Barriers to Wellness"

Dissertation of the Year Award

Year Award Winner
2018 Kristen Farris, "The Impacts of Recurring Supportive Interactions on Couples' Psycological, Relational, and Health Outcomes in the Context of Rheumatic Diseases"
2015 Hanneke Hendriks and Bas van den Putte, “Let’s talk about alcohol: The role of interpersonal communication and health campaigns”
2014 Jessica Gall Myrick, “Searching from the heart. The interplay between emotions and customization in online health information seeking”
2013 Sherine El-Toukhy, “Priming Optimism: The Automaticity of Health Risk Perceptions”
2012 Joe Phua, “The Social Groups Approach to Quitting Smoking: An Examination of Smoking Cessation in Social Networking Sites through the influence of Social Norms, Social Identification, Social Capital, and Social Support”
2011 Elizabeth Gardner, “The Role of Narrative and Other-Referencing in Attenuating Psychological Reactance to Diabetes Self-Care Messages”
2010 Shelly R. Hovick, “Seeking Family Health Information: A Test of the Revised Theory of Motivated Information Management”
2009 Sally Dunlop, “Changing Health Behaviors: The Roles of Intra-and Inter-Personal Responses to Public Health Mass Media Campaigns”
2008 Janice Krieger, “An Empirical Test of Metaphors as a Strategy for Creating Culturally Appropriate Health Messages”
2007 Melissa Harris, “The Role of Emotion in Anti-Drug PSAs: Investigating the Impact of Guilt Arousal on Perceived Message Effectiveness and Behavioral Intentions to Use Drugs”

Top Paper Award

Year Award Winner
2021 Comfort Tosin Adebayo;"'This is Why We're Dying': Discursive Constructions of Pregnancy and Maternal Healthcare Visits in African American Women's Stories"
2021 Katrina Webber, Sara Stifano, Stephen Christopher Stifano, & Shardé Marie Davis;"Unmasking Racial Disparities Amidst Dual Pandemics: Examining Social Identity Threat and Emotion within the Health Belief Model to Understand Masking-Wearing
2021 Dinah Tetteh & Zehui Dai;"Gynecologic Cancer Experiences of Women in Arkansas"
2021 Andre Fedd & Jennifer A. Samp;"Sexual Advice-Seeking Among Friends to Encourage Condom Use: Extending Advice Response Theory"
2021 Jeffrey A. Hall;"Visual Tailoring and Skin Cancer Prevention: Comparing Personalized, Stock, and Non-Ultraviolet Images"
2020 Shamshad Khan, “HIV Interventions and Health Communication at the Crossroads? Sharing Findings from a Community-led Structural Intervention against HIV/AIDS in Mysore, India ”
2020 Jennifer A. Kam,  Monica Cornejo, Roselia Mendez Murillo, and  Nicole Mendoza, "The Importance of Norms and Efficacy in Predicting Undocumented College Students’ Intentions to Talk to an On-Campus Mental Health Professional”
2020 Amy L. Delaney, Erin Basinger, Erin C. Wehrman, and Kelly McAninch, “Predictors and Outcomes of Communal Coping for Couples Managing Health Stress: A Test of the Extended Theoretical Model of Communal Coping”
2020 Anna M. Kerr, Claire Stewart, Charee M. Thompson, Alexander Rakowsky, and John D. Mahan, "'It’s become a little easier to accept that I don’t know what’s going on:' First-Year Pediatric Residents’ Reactions to and Communication about Medical Uncertainty”
2020 Mary Laffidy, Zhan Xu, and Lauren Ellis, "News Frames and News Exposure Predicting Flu Vaccination Coverage: Evidence from U.S. Newspapers, 2011-2018 Using Computational Methods"
2019 Wei Peng, Susan E. Morgan, Bingjing Mao, Soroya Julian McFarlane, Aurora Occa, Gilles Grinfeder, and Margaret Byrne, "Ready to make a decision: A model of information aids to improve informed participation in clinical trial research"
2019 Christina Nicole Selby, Andrea M. Bergstrom, and Corinne Dalelio, "Balancing Act: A Social Cognitive Framework for Understanding Parenting Styles andChildren’s Nutrition"
2019 Adam Richards, Elena Bessarabova, John Banas, and Daniel R. Bernard, Reducing Psychological Reactance in Health Promotion Messages: Comparing Preemptive and Postscript Mitigation Strategies"
2019 Jonathan Baker and Angela Palmer-Wackerly, "Contextualizing Transgender Individual’s Discourses About Health Insurance"
2018 Elizabeth Glowacki, Jay Bernhardt, and Matthew McGlone, "Tailored texts: An application of regulatory fit to text messages designed to reduce high-risk drinking"
2018 Analisa Arroyo, Belina Stillion Southard, Heather Samantha Cohen, and Sarah Caban, "Maternal comunication strategies that promot daughter's body image"
2018 Kory Floyd, Mark Generous, and Lou Clark, "Nonverbal affiliation by physician assistant students during simulated clinical examinations: Genotypic effects"
2018 Erin Basenger, John Caughlin, and Ningxin Wang, "Examining discrepencies between actual and desired communcal coping with Type 2 Diabetes"
2017 Laura O'Hara and Carolyn Shue, "Discursive Struggles in 'Diabetes Management': Examining the Proximal Not-Yet-Spoken Link."
2017 Joy Goldsmith and Sandra Ragan, "Palliativee Care and the Family Caregiver: Trading Mutual Pretense (Empathy) for a Sustained Gaze (Compassion)."
2017 Brittani Cook, Emily Scheinfeld, Ana Navarro, and Cheryl Perry, "Memorable Messages about E-Cigarettes."
2017 Sara Picklesimer and Stephen Christoper Stifano, "Know Your Feelings and Desires: Targets Emotional Education as a Vehicle for Improving Safe Sex Health Messages."
2016 Jennifer A. Kam, Katerina Marcoulides, and Andy J. Merolla, “Using an Acculturation-Stress-Resilience Framework to Explore Latent Profiles of Latina/o Early Adolescent Language Brokers”
2016 Kai Kuang and Steven R. Wilson, “Uncertainty and Information Management in Illness Contexts: A Meta-Analytic Review”
2016 Kami A. Kosenko, “Forms of Problematic Integration in the Context of Infertility”
2016 Victoria Orrego, Jasmine Rene Phillips, and Elena V. Chudnovskaya, “HIV/AIDS Prevention among Tz'Utujil Maya in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala: Using a Community-Based Participatory Approach to Campaign Design”
2016 Kristen Harrison, Jessica D. Moorman, Mericarmen Peralta, and Kally Fayhee, “Food Brand Recognition and BMI in U.S. Preschoolers”
2015 Courtney Anderegg, Ashley Kennard, and David Ewoldsen, “Situation Model Formation and Comprehension of Expository and Narrative Health Information Texts”
2015 Qinghua Yang and Diane Millette, “Does Interactivity Help? A Meta-Analytic Review of Web-Based Interactive Health Interventions”
2015 Anna Kerr, Nancy Harrington, and Allison Gordon, “Communication and the Reappraisal of Uncertainty: Exploring Parental Uncertainty in the Context of Childhood Illness and Multidisciplinary Care”
2015 Jacqueline Bruscella, Alaina Zanin, and Elaine Hsieh, “The Mismanagement of Uncertainty: Interpreting and Negotiating Ambiguous Patient Cues in Clinical Oncology”
2014 Analisa Arroyo, Chris Segrin, Jake Harwood, Joseph A. Bonito, “Co-Rumination of Fat Talk and Weight Control Practices: An Application of Confirmation Theory”
2014 Jiyeon So., Lijiang Shen, “Examining the Risk Perception Gap in the Risk Convergence Model: Narrative Effects on Perceived Social Distance and Self- and Character’s Risk Perception”
2014 Catalina Toma, Jonathan D’Angelo, “Linguistic Cues to Perceived Trustworthiness in Online Medical Advice: A LIWC Analysis”
2014 Xiaoquan Zhao, Xiaoli Nan, Irina Alexandra Iies, Bo Yang, “Temporal Framing and Consideration of Future Consequences: Effects on Smokers’ and At-Risk Nonsmokers’ Responses to Cigarette Health Warnings”
2014 Lisa Guntzviller, Jakob D. Jensen, Luz M. Carreno, “The Impact of Child and Parent Characteristics on Language Brokers’ Health Literacy: A Test of Three Dyadic Models”
2013 Erin Donovan, Brittani Crook, Laura E. Brown, Angie E. Pastorek, Camille A. Hall, Michael S. Mackert, and Keri Stephens, “An Experimental Test of Medical Disclosure and Consent Documentation: Assessing Patient Comprehension, Self-Efficacy, and Uncertainty”
2013 Shelly Campo, Erica Spies, and Natoshia Askelson, “Applying the Theory of Normative Social Behavior to Predict Parents Perceptions of their First Year College Student’s Alcohol Use”
2013 Heather E. Canary, Jennifer A. Cummings, Connie A. Bullis, and Anita Y. Kinney, “Counselor-Client Conversations in a Colorectal Cancer Screening Intervention: An Analysis of Intersecting Activity Systems”
2013 Minji Kim, Rui Shi, and Joseph N. Cappella, “Effect of Character-Audience Similarity on the Perceived Effectiveness of Anti-smoking PSAs via Engagement”
2013 Robert Wu and Lora Appel, “Short Message Service or disservice: Issues Connecting Inter-professionally through Text Messages in a Complex Medical Environment”
2012 Shawna Malvini Redden, Sarah Jane Tracy, and Michael Shafer, “Are ‘Liquid Handcuffs’ Worth ‘Money in My Pocket’? A Metaphor Analysis of Recovering Substance Abusers’ Sensemaking of Medication Assisted Treatment”
2012 Evan Perrault, Kami J. Silk, Allyson Rogers, and Andrea Sexton, “Are Videos Worth It? Testing the Effect of the Addition of Videos to a Website Promoting Environmental Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Practices”
2012 Janice L. Raup-Krieger, Samantha Coveleski, John Graham, Allison Kootsikas, Michael L. Hecht, Michelle Miller-Day, and Jonathan Pettigrew, “From Kids, Through Kids, to Kids: Examining the Social Influence Strategies Used by Adolescents to Promote Prevention among Peers”
2012 Kai J. Western, Allison Thornton, Katherine Gronewold, and Amber R. Koblitz, “The Influence of Family on College Students’ Drinking Behaviors: Integrating Family Communication Environments and the Theory of Planned Behavior”
1991 Majia Holmer
1990 Majia Holmer
1990 Rebecca Cline
1990 J. David Johnson
1990 Hendrika Meischke
1990 Jennifer Grau
1990 Sally Johnson
1989 Julia Burke
1989 Abran Salazer
1989 Dale Brashers
1989 Hazel Rozema
1989 Juanne N. Clark
1989 Roxanne Parrott
1988 David Seibold
1988 Renee Meyers
1988 Michael Burgoon
1987 Kay McDougall
1987 Gregory Nelson
1987 Dawn Braithwaite
1987 Roxanne Parott
1987 Michael Burgoon
1987 J. David Johnson
1987 Paul Arntson
1987 Gregory Makoul
1987 David Pendleton
1987 Theo Schofield

Top Student Paper Award

Year Award Winner
2020 Haijing Ma and Doris Acheme, “Does How You Feel About Yourself Matter? The Effects of Self-Activation and Risk Experience on Narrative Persuasiveness"
2019 Xizi Ru and Taylor White-Welchen, "Self-Efficacy and Health Information Seeking: the Role of Past Experiences on Future Health Information Seeking Behavior"
2017 Zhan Xu, "Using Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis to Compare Online Pro- and Anti-Vaccine Headlines"
2015 Elizabeth Johnson-Young, “Predicting Intentions to Breastfeed for Three Months, Six Months, and One Year Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Body Satisfaction”
2015 Jiyoung Chae, “Cancer Information Overload and Cancer Information Avoidance Mutually Influence Each Other Over Time”
2015 Danielle Catona, “Fall prevention initiatives: Effects of active involvement interventions on strength and balance exercise-related attitude, norm, and intention”
2015 Hannah Ball, “An Application of Psychological Reactance Theory to the Illicit Use and Provision of Prescription Stimulants”
2014 Anne Borsai, John Christensen, Lynn Carol Miller, Paul Robert Appleby, and Stephen J. Read, “Character Identification as a Moderator of the Relationship between Perceived Social Norms and Sexual Risk-Reduction Intentions and Behavior: Findings from an eHealth Interactive Video Intervention”
2014 Yerina S. Ranjit and Merina Shrestha, “Perception of Social Power and Compliance Based on Traditional Health Beliefs in Nepal”
2014 Cindy Yixin Chen, “Risk Perception, Social Support, and Alcohol Use among U.S. Adolescents: An Investigation Using the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health”
2014 Yaguang Zhu, “Social Media’s Influence on Youth Smoking: Changing Attitudes, Social Norms, Self-efficacy and Stages of Change”
2014 Georges Elias Khalil, “When Feelings Continue: A Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Predicts Cancer Risk Awareness after an Entertainment-Education Intervention”
2013 Chih-Wei Hu, “A New Measure for Health Consciousness: Development of A Health Consciousness Conceptual Model”
2013 Rebecca Amati, “Contradictions in End-of-Life Communication: Toward a Validation of the CEOL Scale”
2013 Jinghui (love) Hou, “Toward an Integrative Theoretical Model of Health-Related Risky Behaviors”
2013 Katie Margavio Striley and Kimberly R. Field-Springer, “When it’s Good to be a Bad Nurse: Expanding Risk Orders Theory to Nurses Experiences in OB Units”
2013 Nicholas T. Iannarino, “’My Insides Feel like Keith Richards’ Face’: A Narrative Analysis of Humor and Biographical Disruption in Young Adults’ Blogs about the Cancer Experience”
2012 Kristen Kiernicki and Domenick Wissel, “A Content Analysis of Image Congruency and Persuasiveness in Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising”

Promoting Equity and Inclusivity Award

Year Award Winner
2023 Kathryn Greene
2022 Jennifer A. Kam

Leadership Award

Year Award Winner
2022 Kate Magsamen-Conrad