Dr. Lee Ann Kahlor is a professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & PR in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research interest is in health and environmental risk communication with an emphasis on information seeking and processing. She has explored information behaviors in contexts ranging from cancer to nanotechnology to carbon capture and storage. A secondary interest is in cultural and racial norms related to health behaviors and message processing. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters, and white papers, and has co-edited two books. Her work has appeared in myriad journals including Health Communication, Human Communication Research, Science Communication, Mass Communication and Society, Communication Theory, Environment and Behavior, and Indoor and Built Environment. Dr. Kahlor also has a robust funding portfolio; she is co-principal investigator on a $4.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation and has received additional funds from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the oil and gas industry to fund her work in science communication.
Dr. Kahlor’s undergraduate teaching has been recognized with a Moody College Teaching Excellence Award and a University of Texas System Regents Outstanding Teaching Award. She currently is a Provost’s Teaching Fellow. In terms of service to the students, Dr. Kahlor is the Stan Richards School’s minority liaison, working extensively with students from underrepresented backgrounds, and she leads the Stan Richards School’s Diversity and Inclusion Student Council. Prior to academia, Kahlor worked in journalism, as a freelance writer, and as communication officer for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program office.