Associate Professor
University of Maryland
United States
Dr. Brooke Liu is an associate professor in communication at the University of Maryland. Her research investigates how government messages, media, and interpersonal communication can motivate people to successfully respond to and recover from disasters. Recently, her research focuses on the potentially unique roles that social and mobile media play in building community resilience along with non-communicative factors such as demographics, emotions, hazard knowledge, patriotic beliefs, religiosity, and risk perception.
Liu directs the Risk Communication & Resilience Research Program at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence headquartered at the University of Maryland. In 2013, Liu directed the launch of START’s Training in Risk and Crisis Communication (TRACC) program, which aims to enhance community resilience through sharing the science and theories behind effective risk and crisis communication. She has also led START research teams evaluating how individuals use, behave, and interpret disaster information via social and traditional media and the effectiveness of emergency alerts via mobile devices, among other topics.
Since 2011, Liu has received more than $8 million in competitive funding from government agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She serves as a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Risk Communication Advisory Committee and the National Academy of Sciences Committee studying the future of emergency alert and warning systems. In 2015, she was selected as a Fulbright Senior Roster Candidate.
Liu also serves on the editorial boards for Annals of the International Communication Association, Communication Quarterly, Public Relations Review, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and the Journal of Public Relations Research. Her research has been published in outlets such as Communication Research, Communication Theory, the Handbook of Crisis Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review.