Faculty bio 

Autumn Shafer is an academic expert in health communication, public health promotion public relations, media culture, and persuasion. Autumn’s research looks at how communication, persuasion and public health combine to influence people’s choices in a healthy way. She has studied communication around a variety of health issues, including cancer risk, vaccinations, eating disorders, sexual health, tobacco and diabetes.  Her work involves developing and testing theory-based messages that can be used in health promotion. She has extensive experience running health-related social media campaigns in Oregon. In addition to supporting the creation of effective health promotion messaging, her research contributes to the theoretical understanding of how individuals are affected by health communication messages and their willingness to engaging in health research.

Recent Media:
University of Oregon researchers find the best way to alert parents to the dangers of youth concussions (KGW, Dec. 15, 2024)
This daily bad habit may help early skin cancer detection (HuffPost UK, March 20, 2024)
Social media can boost melanoma detection, research suggests (University of Oregon, March 13, 2024)
Once homeless, SOJC prof's experience now guides research (Around the O, Jan. 22, 2019)