The Communicology Program is thrilled to welcome Dr. Ava Kikut-Stein as a tenure-track assistant professor. Dr. Kikut-Stein earned her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. She completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Kikut-Stein’s research in health communication examines how media messages shape adolescent and young adult health and wellbeing. She is committed to building effective and accessible health communication interventions and elevating diverse youth voices in the research process. During her doctoral and postdoctoral training, Dr. Kikut-Stein developed programs that engage high school and college students in addressing health priorities in their communities with communication research. This “Youth Participatory Action Communication Research” model is informing broader understandings of youth information environments and tailored approaches to promoting mental and physical health.
Dr. Kikut-Stein aims to continue this work with local youth programs and young adult cancer survivors in Hawai’i. She is particularly excited to join the UH Mānoa community because of its commitment to place-based scholarship, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration, and she looks forward to building relationships with students and colleagues across campus.
As a former ski-racer from Vermont, Dr. Kikut-Stein is excited to explore the trails and beaches of Hawai’i with her baby daughter, husband, and pointer-doodle