Hubbard School Announces Tenure for Three Faculty Members

Congrats to our new associate professors!

Following the recommendation of the faculty in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Liberal Arts, its Dean and the Provost, the University of Minnesota Regents voted to promote three Hubbard School faculty members to the position of associate professor with tenure. The vote was ratified on May 10, 2019, and the promotions take effect July 1, 2019, for Rebekah Nagler, Amy O’Connor and Hyejoon Rim.

“We’re proud to announce these promotions and the award of tenure to three of our recent hires,” said Hubbard School Director Elisia Cohen. “Rebekah, Amy and Hyejoon deserve this award for their academic and professional accomplishments as they promote excellence within all the School’s programs.”

Rebekah Nagler

Rebekah Nagler, Tenured Associate Professor, Health Communication
Nagler’s research examines the effects of routine exposure to health information in the media, with a particular focus on conflicting and often controversial information about cancer prevention and screening. Her additional research interests include communication inequalities, health disparities (along racial/ethnic minority, socioeconomic status, and sex/gender lines), and tobacco control. Her work has been funded by agencies and organizations including the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and ClearWay Minnesota. Before coming to Minnesota, she was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Harvard Education Program in Cancer Prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. During her doctoral training, she was a research fellow at the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, she was a consultant at the Advisory Board Company, a health care research, technology, and consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She received her Ph.D. in Communication and her B.A. in the History and Sociology of Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Amy O'Connor

Amy O’Connor, Tenured Associate Professor, Public Relations
Amy O'Connor's research asks a series of differentiated questions about the complicated relationship between CSR communication, corporate-nonprofit partnerships, and stakeholder evaluations. O'Connor's research gives primacy to the constitutive role of communication in CSR and is comprised of three interrelated areas: (1) CSR message content; (2) corporate-nonprofit partnership patterns; and (3) the message effects of CSR communication. Her research has been published in strategic communication and management journals including Management Communication Quarterly and the Conference Board of Directors. She has received a National Science Foundation grant for her work on corporate-nonprofit partnerships. O’Connor received her Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University; her M.A. in Organizational Communication from Western Michigan University; and her B.A. in Mass Communication/Advertising from Washington State University.

 

 

Hyejoon Rim

Hyejoon Rim, Tenured Associate Professor, Public Relations
Rim’s primary research area is corporate social responsibility (CSR), consumer skepticism, and crisis communication. Rim’s research agenda is shaped by questions such as 1) how to demonstrate the value of public relations in enhancing organizational reputation, 2) what are the strategic factors that explain the effects of CSR: when they work and how to make them more effective, and 3) to what extent consumer skepticism influences CSR outcomes. Emphasizing the benefits of applied research, her work blends organizational communication and management, new media studies, consumer behavior, and international communication. Prior to pursuing her academic career, she worked as an account executive for McCann-Erickson, and a senior account executive for InComm Brodeur (currently merged with Ketchum) in Korea. Rim has been awarded the 2015 Arthur W. Page Legacy Scholar grant.