Biography
Ann Christiano is a leading expert in public interest communications, a growing discipline uses science-driven strategic communications and storytelling to advance positive social change. She writes and speaks frequently about strategic communication of social movements and the social science about how people feel and react to polarizing issues. Ann is the director and founder of the Center for Public Interest Communications and a clinical professor in the Department of Public Relations in the College of Journalism and Communications.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Social Change
Public Interest Communications
Public Relations Strategy
Public Relations Writing
Public Relations
Strategic Communication
Media Appearances (4)
This Untapped Tool Could Help Boost Vaccination Rates
Barron's online
2022-01-27
Ann Christiano and co-author Jack Barry write about the failure of workplace vaccine mandates and share some fresh ideas to inspire the last third of Americans not yet vaccinated. They suggest activating the millions of Americans who are vaccinated to inspire those who are not.
In the Covid-19 vaccine push, no one is speaking Gen Z’s language
STAT News online
2021-04-08
“Using messages and strategies and approaches that are rooted in the research and that we know work will get us where we need to be,” said Ann Christiano, the director of the University of Florida’s Center for Public Interest Communications. “If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.”
With City Commission's help, UF student marketing campaign promotes mask-wearing in bars
Alligator online
2021-02-17
In October, Searight Christiano got a call from city manager Lee Feldman, who asked the center to create a recommendation on how to get students to wear masks in public. She said news coverage of bars reopening at full capacity was one of the reasons Feldman called. “I guess the pictures had just come out from the previous weekend — the long lines outside of the bars — and he was really concerned about the issue from a health and safety perspective,” she said.
UF student marketing plan encourages masks in bars to stave off COVID
The Gainesville Sun online
2021-01-29
“Social norms are perceptions of behaviors of people like us," said Ann Christiano, the director of Center for Public Interest Communications in a presentation to the City Commission last week.
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