Chapman University

Chapman University’s Master of Science in Health Communication examines the critical role of interpersonal and mediated communication in health and strategic communication environments, including government, organizational life, health care, media systems and education.

Through extensive research and theory, candidates develop the knowledge and communication skills to pursue careers as teachers, researchers and policy experts in academia, government, non-profit or private organizations. Courses are designed to educate you in human communication theory and methodology and to evaluate important communication topics such as delivering upsetting news, the accuracy of the media, the digital divide, public advocacy, intercultural sensitivity, health literacy and the quality of interpersonal relationships.

Chapman University’s Orange County, California location provides unparalleled opportunities for research, internships and work experiences through our faculty’s strong relationships with agencies, organizations, universities and hospitals throughout Southern California and the world.

Back to the Top

• Core Faculty

  • Lisa Sparks (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) Cancer Communication Science, Provider-Patient Interaction, Health Risk Communication/Messaging, Health Literacy/Numeracy, Family Decision-Making and Caregiving, Interpersonal/Intergroup Health Behavior, Patient-Centered Communication, Social Identity and Health, Breaking Bad News, Health Campaigns

  • Jennifer L. Bevan (Ph.D., University of Georgia) Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Conflict, Empirical Research Methods

  • Fran C. Dickson (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) Family Communication, Interpersonal and Personal Relationships, Health Communication, Communication and Aging, Research Methods, Communication and Conflict

  • Veronica Hefner (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Media, Interpersonal Communication, Body Image, Children

  • Kelli Fuery (Ph.D., Murdoch University, Australia) Health Risk and Crisis Communication, Critical and Cultural Theory

  • Cyril Rakovski (Ph.D., Harvard University) Statistics, Logistic Regression, Weighted Data Management

• Adjunct Faculty

  • Nick Leighton (MBA, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom) Crisis Communications, Public Relations, International Marketing

  • Peter J. Schulz (Ph.D., Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany) Doctor-Patient Communication, Knowledge Acquisition, Risk Communication, Semiotics

• Affiliated Faculty

  • Doug Sweet (M.A., Oregon State University) Rhetorical Theory, Epistemology

Back to the Top

Candidates for the M.S. in Health Communication must successfully complete 30 credits of graduate course work.  Each course is worth 3 credits.

Core Courses (15 credits):

HC 570 Theories of Interpersonal Communication

HC 580 Theories of Health Communication

HC 582 Health Communication Campaigns

HC 595 Research Methodology

HC 598 Community-Based Health Interventions Capstone Research

Specialized Content Courses (12 credits):

HC 596 Special Topics in Research Methodology

HC 597 Special Topics in Health and Risk Communication

Practicum (3 credits from the following):

HC 585 Training and Consulting in Healthcare

HC 599 Independent Study in Health and Risk Communication

Courses are generally offered one night per week, Monday through Thursday, from 4:00-6:50 p.m. or 7:00-9:50 p.m.

Back to the Top

SCHOLARLY VOLUMES & TEXTBOOKS:

Sparks, L. (in preparation). Theories of health risk communication.

Fuery, P., Fuery, K., & Sparks, L. (Eds.) (2010). Migration and Identities. Liverpool, UK: Unipress.

Sparks, L., & Villagran, M. (2010). Patient and provider interaction: A global health communication perspective. Polity Press.

ARTICLES, CHAPTERS & REVIEWS:

Bevan, J., Rogers, K., Andrews, N., & Sparks, L. (2010). Topic avoidance and negative health perceptions in the distant caregiving context.

Jupin, A., Bevan, J., & Sparks, L. (2010). Information seeking, uncertainty, and quality of care in the distant caregiving situation.

Bevan, J., & Sparks, L. (2010). Communication in the context of distance caregiving.

Sparks, L. & Rakovski, C. (2010). Health literacy: Health Information National Trends Survey III.

Fuery, P., Fuery, K., & Sparks, L. The Trace-Image: Identity, Health, and the Migrant Body. Traces. (pp. 1-25). Liverpool, UK: Unipress.

Whaley, B. & Sparks, L. (2010). Explanations of cancer: An intergroup approach.

Sparks, L. (2010). Evidence-based research perspectives in health care communication: An intergroup approach.

Sparks, L. (2010). Health communication and caregiving research, policy, and practice. In S. S. Travis & R. Talley (Eds.) Multi-disciplinary Coordinated Caregiving: Professional Contributions. Springer.

Robinson, J. D., Tian, Y., & Sparks, L. (2010). Health communication, health literacy and numeracy: Health Information National Trends Survey III.

Robinson, J. D., & Sparks, L.(2010). Health literacy, numeracy, media complementarity and bounded rationality: A case study.

Kreps, G. L., Villagran, M. M., & Sparks, L. (Eds.) (2010). Editor’s introduction: Communication education and health promotion. [Special Issue]. Communication Education, 59(3), 215-219.

Villagran, M. M., Weathers, M. Keefe, B., & Sparks, L. (2010). Medical providers as global warming and climate change health educators: A health literacy approach. Communication Education, 59(3), 312-327.

Sparks, L. & Brougham, R. R.  (2010). Health Literacy and older adults: Understanding motivational, cognitive, and emotional barriers.  In R.R. Brougham (Ed.), New Directions in Aging Research: Health and Cognition.  New York: NOVA Science Publishers.

Villagran, M., Wittenberg-Lyles, E., & Sparks, L. (2010). The relationships among perceived physician accommodation, perceived outgroup typicality, compliance, and attitudes toward quality of medical care and complementary care among the low-income Latino/a population in south Texas.

Vajac, A., Vajac, M., Sparks, L., & Struppa, D. C., (2010). Higher dimensional social structures: Simplicial models of social aggregation.

Vajac, A., & Vajac, M., Sparks, L., & Struppa, D. C., (2010). Combinatorial invariance of social groups: A computational commutative algebra approach.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:

Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) Health Literacy Conference, May 2010

Title:  Predictors of Pap Screening Among Latina Women

Title:  An Exploration of Health Literacy, Information Seeking, and Perception of Risk on Predicting the Likelihood of Cancer Screening

National Communication Association Conference, San Francisco, November 2010

Title: Communicating Science in Routine, Recreational, Controversial, and Crisis Contexts:  Theory, Research, Funding

Title:  Distance Caregiving Communication: A Communication Accommodation Theory Approach

RESEARCH GRANTS:

• Project Title:  A randomized trial of an intervention to reduce early discontinuation of adjuvant anastrozole hormonal therapy in women with early stage breast cancer, with D. Hershman, A. Neugut, S. Ramsey, & J. Unger

• Project Title: Developing tailored advanced care planning using patients’ coping approach.

• Project Title:  HPV vaccine acceptance for cervical cancer prevention: Understanding health literacy and informed lay preferences for tailored message delivery, with Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

• “Grand Opportunities” Recovery Act Limited Competition for NIH Grants: Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities” (RC2) RFA-OD-09-004.

  • Project Title: Biobehavioral Outcomes of a Randomized Trial to Improve Gynecologic Health among Multi-ethnic Communities at High Risk for Cervical Cancer, with Dr. Lari Wenzel, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

• "Recovery Act Limited Competition: NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research (RC1). 01-CA-103 "The Role of Health Behaviors in Cancer Prevention."

• Project Title: Use of Social Media to Improve Health Behaviors in Adolescent Cancer Survivors.  

  • Grant application is proposing the use of a social media network to initiate health interventions designed to mitigate the possibility of secondary cancers and new primary cancers in adolescent survivors of cancer, with Dr. Leonard Sender, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Project Title: Evaluating health messages and decision-making in breaking bad news of dementia, with Co-PI’s, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Project Title: Evaluating health messages and decision-making and pain management in late stage cancer, with Co-PI’s, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Project Title: The health information needs of Vietnamese/Korean/Chinese immigrants for cancer prevention.

• This project is an R01 application in response to the “Community Participation in Research” NIH Program Announcement (PAR-05-026) on “The Health Information Needs of Immigrants for Cancer Prevention, Screening, and Control.”

Back to the Top

Back to the Top