Lucinda Austin joined the faculty in July 2016 and teaches courses in public relations and strategic communication. Her research focuses on social media’s influence on strategic communication initiatives, namely health and crisis communication, and explores publics’ perspectives in corporate social responsibility and organization-public relationship building.
Austin has published work in journals including Communication Research, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Journal, and Social Marketing Quarterly. Dr. Austin has been a recipient of AEJMC's Promising Professors Award, AEJMC Public Relations Division’s SuPRstar Award, the Arthur W. Page Center's Legacy Educator and Legacy Scholar Awards, and NCA's PRIDE Award. Dr. Austin earned her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was recipient of the 2011 Charles Richardson Most Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award and the 2009 Outstanding Teaching Award.
Before joining the faculty, Austin was an assistant professor of Strategic Communications at Elon University where she taught courses in communications research, strategic campaigns, strategic writing, and health communications and served as Associate Director of Elon’s Honors Program. Her professional experience includes work for the Center of Risk Communication Research at the University of Maryland and for ICF International, a firm offering communication support to Federal government and nonprofit organizations, including the CDC, HHS, FEMA, and the American Red Cross.