Deborah Neffa Creech

Deborah Neffa Creech earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. She earned a B.A. (highest honors) in Journalism and Political Science and studied persuasive communication as part of her senior honors thesis. As a Roy H. Park Fellow pursuing an M.A. in Health Communication, she authored conference and journal articles and completed her thesis research on the adoption and sustainability of a statewide program to transform the food environments in hospitals. While at UNC, Deborah completed internships with Prevention Partners, National Geographic, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, further pursuing her interests in health communication.

After receiving her M.A., Deborah spent four years working in Corporate Communications at Carolinas HealthCare System, one of the nation’s largest non-profit health systems. She developed campaigns to prompt patient and provider behavior change while supporting strategic communications for the System’s international medical outreach program, patient experience department, and diversity initiatives.

At Annenberg, Deborah is actively involved in health communication and social change research and is generally interested in better understanding the effects of interpersonal communication, family dynamics, and technologies on young adults’ health behaviors, particularly as they relate to food and nutrition.