Sydney Dillard, PhD is an associate professor of
Public Relations and Advertising. Her areas of expertise focus on visual communication, health campaign development, and sustainable university-community partnerships for social change. Her teaching experience spans advertising courses including Intro to Advertising, Graphic Design, Advertising and Health Campaigns, and Communication Ethics and Law, among others. Her scholarly work explores the relationship between power, privilege and choice in both advertising and health communication sectors.
Dr. Dillard is currently overseeing the development of the College of Communication
Media Engagement Lab (ME Lab),
Continuing Professional Education Certificate in Creative Advertising, and BRAND Summer Program (Building Resources for Advertising Needs and Diversity). She also serves as an executive board member in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) as the Professional Freedom & Responsibility Chair in the Advertising Division and Grant Program Chair in the Minorities and Communication Division. Outside of the academy she loves dancing, cooking, and of course, Netflix and chilling.
Selected Publications
- “Bridging Theory to Practice: Utilizing the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to Address Gaps in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Processes”. Athens Journal of Health, 5. (2018)
- “Abnormally Normal Uteri: Exploring the Social and Cultural Landscape of Fibroid Tumors among African American Women in the US”. Women's Reproductive Health. (2016)
- “The preventative power of "Pink": Delineating the effects of social identification and protection motivation theory in breast cancer related advertisements”. Health Marketing Quarterly, 35. (2016)
- “Culture-centered engagement with delivery of health services: Co-constructing meanings of health in the Tzu Chi Foundation through Buddhist philosophy”. Health Communication, 1-10. (2014)