Mapping the Digital Landscape

Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH, is a Program Director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) of the Behavioral Research Program (BRP) at NCI, where she oversees and conducts research on the evolving social media landscape and its impact on public health and clinical care, with a particular focus on the consequences of exposure to health misinformation online. Her research interests include social media and health, health literacy, patient-provider communication for patients diagnosed with advanced cancer, and mixed methods research. Trained as a sociolinguist, she has expertise in qualitative analyses of health care interactions. She has led a number of NIH initiatives on the role of technology and social media in various areas of health, including funding initiatives on the impact of the changing communication landscape on substance use and addiction as well as cancer prevention and control. Dr. Chou has more than 50 scientific publications, many of which have documented health-related internet use, the impact of social media use, and the utility of qualitative and mixed methods approaches to clinical communication about cancer prognosis and goals of care. Dr. Chou came to the HCIRB from the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program. Prior to joining NCI, she obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University. Her doctoral dissertation examined end-of-life discourse through an ethnographic and linguistic analysis of interactions between seriously-ill cancer patients and caregivers. She holds a bachelor's degree in Music (piano performance) from Santa Clara University in California and a master's degree in Public Health from the Interdisciplinary M.P.H. program at University of California, Berkeley. 

Cam Escoffery, PhD, MPH, CHES, is Professor and co-chair of  the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. Dr. Escoffery is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. She is a member of the Strategic Planning, Community Outreach Committee and Cancer Education Committee at Winship. She is also a current member of Georgia Federation of Professional Health Educators, Inc., GA-SOPHE Chapter, American Public Health Association, Society For Public Health Education, American Evaluation Association and Atlanta-area Evaluation Association.