New Faculty Member-Laura Arpan

The Department of Communication welcomed Dr. Laura Arpan to the faculty as Professor this fall.  Dr. Arpan comes from about 550 miles away in Bloomington, Indiana. She stayed there to obtain a bachelor’s degree in journalism and economics. She then moved south to work in public relations and then attended the University of Alabama, where she earned a master’s and Ph.D. in Mass Communication and Communication Theory and Effects. Dr. Arpan's research interests relate to how people evaluate and sometimes reject messages about environmental behaviors or risks and health risks. She is working on a project committed to understanding the effects of user-generated pro-health and -environmental messages on attitudes and behaviors. The classes she enjoys teaching are in persuasion and social marketing (a course that uses marketing principles to plan campaigns encouraging people to practice pro-environmental, prosocial, or health behaviors). The faculty is what drew Dr. Arpan to work here, stating it is composed of people doing excellent and relevant research, and she wanted to be a part of the group. Welcome, Laura!