HB alumnus named dean of communication at University of Texas
February 29, 2016
Jay Bernhardt, PhD, alumnus of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been appointed dean of University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication, effective March 1. He has served as interim dean since Sept. 1, 2015.
Bernhardt joined the faculty of UT-Austin in 2014 to serve as founding director of the communication college’s Center for Health Communication. He holds the Walter Cronkite Regents Chair and the Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in Communication at UT and is an adjunct professor at Austin Regional Campus of The University of Texas School of Public Health.
From 2010 to 2014, Bernhardt was professor and chair of health education and behavior at the University of Florida at Gainesville. For five years prior to that, he directed the National Center for Health Marketing at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overseeing many of the CDC’s communication programs and scientific publications.
Under his leadership, the CDC increased its emphasis on science-based health communication research and practice, including the innovative application of public and professional engagement using social networks, streaming media and mobile messaging.
Bernhardt received a Master of Public Health degree from Rutgers and a doctorate in health behavior at the UNC Gillings School.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu