LAB MEMBERS
Faculty
Dr. Victoria Ledford
faculty director
Dr. Victoria Ledford (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is an assistant professor of health communication in the School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University. There, she conducts research and teaches on topics related to stigma, health, and mediated communication. She has published peer reviewed research in top academic journals spanning the fields of health, medicine, and psychology, including Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Stigma and Health, and Patient Education and Counseling. As a professor, she has also collaborated on grant-funded research projects totalling nearly $2 million in total funding. She is a quantitative methods expert and specializes in experimental and survey methods—which is why she teaches the quantitative methods course for Auburn’s master’s in communication program. She enjoys mentoring students, and her favorite part of the research process is that moment when you first start to see the results of a study and realize how much more there is to learn.
Dr. Jacqueline Gunning
faculty affiliate member
Dr. Jacqueline N. Gunning (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) is an Assistant Professor of Communication in the School of Communication & Journalism at Auburn University. Her research uses qualitative, mixed, and arts-based methods to examine how individuals navigate difficult conversations about health and how those interactions shape individual and relational well-being. Her work appears in journals including Health Communication, Social Science & Medicine, and Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and has been featured in popular media outlets such as Healthline, Psychology Today, and Health. Her research has received multiple top paper awards from the National Communication Association and has been funded by the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University, the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication, and the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research on Girls and Women of Color.
Dr. Jay Pickern
faculty affiliate member
Dr. Jay Pickern (D.B.A., Wilmington University) is an assistant professor of health services administration in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. He conducts research on a variety of health administration and management topics, such as stigma, patient care experiences and outcomes of stigmatized populations, workplace experiences of stigmatized populations, and organizational justice. His peer reviewed research has been published in several top healthcare and management journals, including Patient Education and Counseling, Employee Relations: The International Journal, Baltic Journal of Management, American Journal of Managed Care, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Anthropology & Medicine, and Journal of Health Administration Education. He is a qualitative researcher who specializes in the use of publicly available social media posts for data collection. Dr. Pickern enjoys mentoring students to success both in the classroom and beyond, and he is excited to be part of the SHAPE Lab.
Graduate Students
Joyce is a first-year Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at the School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University. She is passionate about women and children’s rights, health experiences, quality education and environmental issues. She is particularly interested in how communication can be used for advocacy, digital storytelling, and creating better experiences for people and organizations.
During her undergraduate studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, she collaborated with her project team to explore menstrual stigma and its social, psychological, and educational impact through a final year capstone project titled, Her Muted Roars: Empowering Women through Period Stories. You are welcome to listen to these stories. She has also gained research experience by contributing to the Acute Care and Emergency Referral Systems (ACERS) Project with a team of researchers from the University of Ghana, where she conducted interviews with expecting and lactating mothers and compiled data which supported community-based health interventions. She is so excited to be part of the SHAPE Lab and looks forward to learning, contributing to research, and using communication to help shape better health experiences and, ultimately, a better world.
Joyce Kpeglo
Master's student
Undergraduate Students
Katherine Amitrone
undergraduate senior
Katherine Amitrone is a senior at Auburn University majoring in Public and One Health with a minor in Health and Human Development. She is excited to join the SHAPE Lab and eager to expand her understanding of maternal health and the factors that influence health outcomes for mothers and children. She is passionate about improving access to nutrition, healthcare, and other essential resources that support healthy pregnancies and maternal well-being. She serves as the President of Public and One Health Ambassadors at Auburn University. She represents the major and works closely with faculty to speak with prospective students, attend major-related events, and improve the program. She is committed to connecting public health education with meaningful community engagement, and has worked closely with the Food Bank of East Alabama. Through her volunteer work there, she gained valuable insight into the role food access and nutrition play in supporting
individual and community health. Following graduation, she plans to pursue a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Fetal Health. She is excited to develop her research skills through the SHAPE Lab and contribute to research that advances maternal health communication and improves outcomes for families and communities.