Amelia  Burke-Garcia Author of Evaluating Organization Development
FEATURED AUTHOR

Amelia Burke-Garcia

Director, Digital Strategy & Outreach Program Area
NORC at the University of Chicago

Dr. Burke-Garcia is a seasoned health communication professional with nearly 20 years of experience. She is the author of two books: "Influencing Health" and "Communicating Through a Pandemic." She has also been highlighted by the U.S. Surgeon General for her work in honor of Women’s History Month and has been named to VeryWellHealth.com’s list of 10 Modern Female Innovators Shaking Up Health Care.

Biography

Dr. Burke-Garcia is a seasoned health communications professional with nearly 20 years of experience in health communication program planning, implementation and evaluation, with specific expertise in developing and evaluating digital and social media communication and research programs. At NORC, she leads the organization's Digital Strategy and Outreach Program Area, where she designs and implements strategies that leverage the power of digital media to influence behavior. In this role, Dr. Burke-Garcia develops new digital and mobile data collection methodologies and communication solutions. She has been overseeing the award-winning How Right Now/Que Hacer Ahora campaign since 2020, which aims to increase people’s ability to cope and be resilient amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. She currently leads two grants focused on exploring vaccine hesitancy amongst communities of color that build on her earlier work exploring messages and motivations of vaccine-hesitant or refusing social media influencers (findings from which were published in Vaccine in 2020). Over the course of her career, Dr. Burke-Garcia has spearheaded some of the most innovative communication programs and studies on a variety of health topics, including designing a targeted social media intervention with mommy bloggers to help social media users lower their risk for breast cancer, and leveraging MeetUp groups and the Waze mobile application to move people to action around flu vaccination and HIV testing, respectively. She is the author of the book, Influencing Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Social media influencers, and her new book, Communicating Through a Pandemic: A Chronicle of Experiences, Lessons Learned, and a Vision for the Future, is slated to be released this year. She has been highlighted by the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, for her work in honor of Women’s History Month and has been named to VeryWellHealth.com’s list of 10 Modern Female Innovators Shaking Up Health Care.

Education

    PhD, George Mason University, 2017
    MA, Georgetown University, 2008
    BA, McGill University, 2002

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

    digital media, social media, mobile media, behavior change communication, online influencers, social networks, data visualization, data harmonization, survey support, bot detection, new methods of data collection, disinformation/misinformation online, digital literacy

Websites

Books

Featured Title
 Featured Title - Communicating Through a Pandemic: Burke-Garcia - 1st Edition book cover