Dr. Dunleavy received her PhD from Michigan State University in 1999. Dr. Dunleavy’s research lies in areas of mentoring relationships and health communication. Dr. Dunleavy is also interested in issues faced by graduate students and junior faculty of color in higher education. In the area of health communication Dr. Dunleavy works in three specific domains: college student health, organ donation, and access issues among hard to reach populations. Dr. Dunleavy has worked in partnership with the University of Miami’s Department of Epidemiology (EPI), Life Alliance Organ Procurement Organization (LAORA), and the Socio-Medical Sciences Research Group (SMSRG) on grant-funded research. Dr. Dunleavy’s role has been to theoretically frame interventions with the relevant and appropriate communication concepts and research on health behavior change. She provides communication expertise in intervention development, message design as well as quantitative and qualitative methodology. She has helped design campaign intervention messages, created focus group protocols as well as survey and panel instruments. Dr. Dunleavy has also been working with SMSRG by examining psychosocial needs of medically underserved populations. The research focus is on HIV/AIDs prevention and substance abuse policy. Dr. Dunleavy has served on editorial boards for three of communication journals: Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Communication Research Reports, and Communication Education.
