Nien Tsu (Nancy) Chen
nientsuc [at] usc [dot] edu
Nancy Chen has an honours degree in Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne and a master degree in Communication from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the doctoral program at USC, she worked in radio and television news and took a two-year position as a public relations officer at the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. As a doctoral student, Nancy studies health communication with a special interest in risk and crisis situations. She has conducted and published research on how the communication practices of the news media and public health authorities influence public perceptions and behaviors during health emergencies. During the past three years, she has also worked on a joint initiative between communication researchers and professional journalists to develop a unique local news website for a diverse Los Angeles neighborhood. This tri-lingual website is grounded in social sciences research and seeks to provide locally and culturally relevant information as way of encouraging and enabling civic engagement in the project area.