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About the Center
Affiliate Faculty
Gary Kreps
Gary L. Kreps (Ph.D., USC, 1979) is the Eileen and Steve Mandell Professor of Health Communication at George Mason University, where he serves as Chair, Dept. of Communication, Acting Director, Ph.D. Program in Communication, Director, Center for Health & Risk Communication, Governing Board Member, Center for Social Science Research, and as an advisor to the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Disease. He served from 1999-2004 as founding Chief of the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NIH), where he developed national health communication research initiatives to promote cancer prevention and control. Prior to that, he served as the Founding Dean of the School of Communication at Hofstra University, Executive Director of the Greenspun School of Communication at UNLV, and in important faculty and administrative roles at Northern Illinois, Rutgers, Indiana, and Purdue Universities.
Gary’s areas of expertise include health & organizational communication, health promotion, ehealth, multimedia edutainment, multicultural relations, and applied research methods. His published work includes more than 250 scholarly books and articles concerning the applications of communication knowledge in society. He has received research funding from the NIH, NSF, CDC, HRSA, US Dept. of Ed., RWJF, Kaiser Family Foundation., and several universities and health care systems. He has edited several research journal special issues (including for the American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Health Psychology, Journal of Health Communication, Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Communication Research Reports, Electronic Journal of Communication, and Journal of Cancer Education). He edits two Hampton Press book series (on “Health Communication” and “Communication and Social Organization”). He has been the recipient of many honors, including the Pfizer Visiting Professorship of Clear Health Communication, the Robert Lewis Donohew Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award, the Future of Health Technology Award, the Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award (from both the International Communication and the National Communication Associations), the Distinguished Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in Consumer Health Informatics and Online Health, and the Gerald M. Phillips Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship Award from the National Communication Association.