Meet the team
KATHERINE RAFFERTY - Director
Dr. Rafferty (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) conducts research in interpersonal health communication with a focus on how patients and families manage and cope with chronic illness and end-of- life care. She is primarily a qualitative scholar, but also uses quantitative methods to examine research questions about family health communication needs. Katherine is an associate teaching professor at Iowa State University. She teaches several undergraduate communication courses and mentors undergraduate students in their independent research projects. In Fall 2018 and Spring 2020, she received a total of $12,000 grant to develop an online health communication course for undergraduate pre-health professionals and other social science majors. Prior to earning her PhD, Katherine worked as a Health Communication Specialist for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
ELEANOR GLENN - Undergraduate Research Assistant
Eleanor is a Senior at Iowa State University majoring in Communication Studies with a Leadership Certificate. Eleanor has been a peer mentor for the Communication Studies program, working with Freshmen and transfer students. Currently, she is working for an environmental nonprofit based in Denver, Environment America. She is the Grassroots Coordinator, working on projects writing letters to editors, training volunteers, and running action campaigns to accomplish organization goals. She plans to graduate in May of 2022 and work in Public Relations or outreach.