Lisa
Sparks
Lisa
Sparks received her Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma
in 1998. She is currently an Associate Professor of Communication
at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Her research
primarily focuses on communication with, by, and about
older adults, and how such communication relates to healthy
and successful aging outcomes via theoretical frameworks
such as lifespan development, social identity, communication
accommodation, and intergroup behavior. Her research on
intergenerational communication and aging merges with
research in health, risk, and crisis communication domains,
including provider-patient and family relationships, health
organizations, and communicating urgency when information
is uncertain during periods of health risk.
Recent
work has investigated social identity in health and mediated
communicative contexts (e.g., cancer, terrorism);
the critical role of communication in preparing for biological
health/risk threats via mediated and interpersonal messages;
and cognitive complexities of older adult health information
seeking and message processing.
She
has published more than 5 books, including Cancer
Communication and Aging (forthcoming); and Communication
and Cancer Care (forthcoming), both co-authored with
H.D. O'Hair and G.L. Kreps. She has published more than
30 journal articles and book chapters related to the intersection
of aging, communication, and health/risk issues, as well
as more than 30 additional publications that focus on
the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Her
recent publications have appeared in Health Communication;
Journal of Applied Communication Research; Journal of
Health Communication; Journal of Gerontology: Medical
Sciences; Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology; Case
Studies in Health Communication; Handbook of Communication
and Aging; and Communication, Communities, and Terrorism.
Dr.
Sparks currently serves as Editor of Communication Research
Reports and serves as a manuscript reviewer for a
number of peer-reviewed journals both in communication and
gerontology. In 2003, she served as Guest Editor of Health
Communication: Cancer Communication and Aging, a special
issue that featured papers presented at a symposium held
at George Mason University. In addition, Dr. Sparks has
served as a Cancer Communication Research Fellow and an
External Scientific Reviewer for the Health Communication
and Informatics Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program,
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National
Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
MD.
