Dr. Erica Weintraub Austin, previously WSU’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, has announced her intent to rejoin the Murrow College in January 2020. Dr. Austin will return to her role as director of the Edward R. Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research and professor in the Murrow College.
Over the past six years, Dr. Austin has applied her interests and skills to the university’s central needs to advance WSU students’ academic progress and achievement. She saw this work as a continuation of her extensive research concerning health communication and promotion. “It’s been an honor to apply my research and campaign-building skills on behalf of WSU’s students and faculty,” she said, “but I’m excited to be coming home!”
Dr. Austin contributes significant scholarly and leadership experience to Murrow College. She has an international reputation for excellence in research and outreach on media literacy, parent-child communication and health. Further, the American Academy of Pediatrics has cited Erica’s research in multiple policy statements and she has secured more than $7 million in grant and project funding from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and the USDA AFRI program.
For the duration of the Fall 2019 semester, Dr. Austin will take a research leave to focus on building multi-disciplinary grant proposals and research projects.