School News - College of Communication and Information

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Improving School Learning
Environments in HIV
Prevention. Seth Noar
(COM) received funding from
the National Institute of
Mental Health for his study,
Enhancing Message Design
in Tailored, Computerized
HIV/STI Interventions. Tim
Sellnow (COM) has funding
from the Department of
Homeland Security for his
project, Robust Case Study
of Food-borne Crisis Events.
Tim Sineath (SLIS) continues
his work with the
Kentucky Department for
Libraries and Archives. Lisa
O’Connor (SLIS) received
an American Library
Association Emerald Award
for her research on information
seeking behaviors of
non-professional investors.
Success with
internal funding
We have had great success
securing internal funding to
support our faculty and their
research. Caroline Rankin
(COM) received summer
support for 2007 to investigate
risky sexual communication
in college student
dating relationships. Three of
our faculty members will
receive support for summer
2008. Zixue Tai (JAT) will
complete his book on the
changing landscape of
Chinese media in the new
millennium. Deborah
Chung (JAT) is planning to
study how differing forms of
news delivery affect the cognitive
and affective processing
and perception of news
content. Lisa O’Connor
(SLIS) will expand her
research on the information
seeking behavior of female
amateur investors.
Our College
Grants Officer
When it comes to obtaining
extramural funding, an integral
member of our team is
our College Grants Officer,
Gina Vessels. As CGO, Gina
assists faculty and staff with
pre-award and post-award
grant activities. Services
include helping researchers
find appropriate funding
opportunities for their projects,
drafting budgets and
preparing grant applications
and internal forms in compliance
with both sponsor
and university policies, assisting
with account ledger
review and resolution of
account issues that may arise
during the project, and coordinating
with all departments
on campus that are vital to a
grant’s success, including
but not limited to the Office
of Sponsored Projects
Administration, Sponsored
Projects Accounting, and
the Office of Research
Integrity. Prior to joining the
University of Kentucky, Gina
wrote and managed grant
programs for community
non-profit organizations and
was a project manager for a
large national association,
allowing her the benefit of
seeing all aspects of grants
and project implementation
from beginning to end. This
experience gives her a unique
perspective as she helps
faculty and staff navigate
the requirements for obtaining
and managing grants at
the university.
College
research
activities
awards
Each year, the College
receives 5% of the indirect
costs that it generates from
its extramurally funded
research. We use the majority
of that money to fund faculty
research projects and international
travel.
Research Project
Elisia Cohen (COM),
Campaigns for Smoking
Cessation and Oral Health:
Literature Review and
Content Analysis. The goal of
this research was to complete
reviews of the oral health
communication literature to
provide the foundation for a
grant application to NIH.
International Travel
Several faculty members
received travel support to
attend the 58 th Annual
Conference of the
International Communication
Association in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada.
Deborah Chung (JAT)
presented a paper she coauthored
with doctoral student
Jennifer Robinette, Fast
Forward into the Future:
Trends in the Interactivity
of Online News.
Elisia Cohen (COM) presented
her paper, Naming and
Claiming Cancer, Fears,
and Fatalism Among
African-American Women:
An Application of
Problematic Integration
(PI) Theory. She also participated
in a session on
Remapping Public Media:
Imagining Public Media in
an Open, Digital
Environment, and chaired a
panel on Risk Perceptions
and Fatalism in Health.
Seth Noar (COM) presented
three papers, which he coauthored
with several faculty,
graduate student, and
practitioner colleagues:
Understanding Partner
Characteristics and
Personality Factors as
Predictors of HIV:
Implications for Message
Design; Applying the Attitude-
Social Influence-Efficacy
Model to Condom Use Among
African-American STD Clinic
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