Nancy Chen

Nancy was born in Taiwan, and as a teenager, she moved to Australia with her family. She received her honors degree in Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne in 2003.  After graduation, Nancy worked in radio and television news before taking a job with the public relations office at the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control.  Her work at Taiwan CDC introduced her to the exciting field of health communication, an area Nancy has been focusing on as a doctoral student at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. 

Nancy’s current research deals with the integration of theory and practice in designing and evaluating health and emergency preparedness campaigns.  She has also looked at the use of entertainment education by health promoters and the utilization of new communication technologies by non-governmental and intergovernmental health organizations.  Since 2008, Nancy has been working with her colleagues at Metamorphosis to investigate the challenges and opportunities for promoting civic engagement through local journalism in Alhambra, an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Los Angeles.