Lisa Sparks (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 1998) is Professor and Presidential Research Fellow of Health and Risk Communication at Chapman University in Orange, California where she serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of Science in Health Communication in the Schmid College of Science. In addition, Dr. Sparks also serves as a full member of the Chao Family/NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Medicine (SOM) in the Division of Population Sciences, and has a faculty appointment in the Program in Public Health (PHP), College of Health Sciences (COHS). Prior to joining Chapman in 2006, Dr. Sparks occupied positions at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Dr. Sparks is a highly regarded teacher-scholar whose published work spans more than 100 research articles and scholarly book chapters, and is the author and editor of more than ten books in the areas of communication, health, and aging with a distinct focus on cancer communication science. She has served as a scientific consultant and advisor to the American Medical Association, American Medical Student Association, Educational Testing Service, Southwest Oncology Group, American Association of Cancer Research, Entertainment Industries Council and the United States House of Representatives at the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She is a Founding Senior Scientific Research Fellow for the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC), Burbank, CA/Reston, VA and a National Scientific Advisor for the Entertainment and Media Communication Institute (EMCI) Center for Sun Safety and Skin Cancer Prevention in partnership with the Sun Safety Alliance (SSA). EIC is a non-profit organization founded in 1983 by leaders in the entertainment industry to provide information, awareness and understanding of major health and social issues among the entertainment industries and to audiences at large. In addition, Dr. Sparks is a former Cancer Communication Research Fellow for the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD and has served as an External Scientific Reviewer for NIH. She has served as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI on a number of research grants including PI for a $40,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant entitled: Hablamos Juntos: Improving Patient-Provider Communication for Latinos, which primarily consisted of helping English-speaking providers communicate more effectively with their Spanish-speaking patients. She has also organized a number of innovative research symposia in cancer communication science (aging, health literacy) at both GMU and Chapman.

Her research goal is to understand and create evidence based health messages that effectively change health behavior resulting in better health outcomes by applying social science theory and methods to the continuum of cancer care surrounding issues of health promotion, disease prevention, survivorship, and health disparities. Dr. Sparks’ research and teaching interests in intergroup (intergenerational, intercultural) communication and aging approaches merge with her research in health, risk, and crisis communication domains including provider-patient interaction, family caregiving, health information and decision-making, patient-centered communication, breaking bad news, health literacy, health organizations, interpersonal based health campaigns, communicating about (bio)terrorism, and communicating relevant messages with vulnerable populations when information is uncertain during periods of health risk.

Dr. Sparks’ recent books include Patient-Provider Interaction: A Global Health Communication Perspective (Polity Press, 2010 with Melinda M. Villagran), Health Communication in the 21st Century (Blackwell, 2008 with Kevin B. Wright and Dan O’Hair), Handbook of Communication and Cancer Care (Hampton Press, 2007 with Dan O’Hair and Gary Kreps), Cancer, Communication and Aging (Hampton Press, 2008 with Dan O’Hair and Gary Kreps), La Comunicación en el Cancer: Comunicación y apoyo emocional en el laberinto del cancer (Aresta, 2009 with Melinda M. Villagran). Dr. Sparks has served as Editor of Communication Research Reports; Guest Editor of Patient Education and Counseling, Health Communication and Communication Education and currently serves on several editorial boards including Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and Communication Quarterly.

Dr. Sparks’ research achievements, leadership qualities, and strong commitment to advance the intersections of Communication, Health, Aging and Cancer Communication Sciences are significant as evidenced by: a) the number of publications (over 100) most of which are peer-reviewed; b) the obtainment and consistent effort to obtain competitive peer-reviewed research grants and contracts; c) the recognition of her scientific stature; d) her collaborations with the top national and international scientists in communication and related scientific fields; e) her teaching and mentoring of numerous undergraduate and graduate students and junior faculty; and f) her demonstrated leadership and administrative roles as Editor of Communication Research Reports, Guest Editor of Health Communication, Patient Education and Counseling, and Communication Education as well as her editorial service for a number of peer-reviewed journals and continued service on several executive boards and associations.