Visiting Assistant Professor
Departments
Communication Studies & Strategic Communication
Office
WCB
Phone
Dr. Ran Tao is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Communication. Her research examines persuasive messaging strategies and their effects on audiences, particularly by looking into the interplay of emotion and cognition in persuasive communications. Some of her current projects focus on characterizing and optimizing effective public health campaigns, such as those aimed at youth tobacco and vaping prevention. Her work has been published in leading academic journals, including Health Communication, Social Science & Medicine, Media Psychology, Journal of Advertising Research, and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Tao was a postdoctoral research associate at the UNC Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her teaching expertise includes quantitative research methods in communication studies, principles of strategic communication, intro to mass communication, and media and consumer in digital media.