Biography

Dr. Yu’s research focuses on health communication and communication technology with an emphasis on health promotion using digital technologies and health messages tailored to specific audience members. Her scholarly work includes studies pertaining to health information seeking, immigrant health, health message effects, social and cultural construction of health, global health, and user experience of touch-screen devices. Dr. Yu currently serves as the associate editor of Asian Journal of Communication.

Dr. Yu’s research has been published in premier peer-reviewed journals such as Health CommunicationInformation SciencesInternational Journal of Human-Computer StudiesVisual Communication QuarterlyElectronic News, Journal of Immigrant and Minority HealthJournal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, and International Public Health Journal. Her research has been supported by national and regional funding agencies such as National Science Foundation, AEJMC Emerging Scholars Program, and Dakota Medical Foundation.

Dr. Yu joined the Nicholson School of Communication and Media in 2017. She received her Ph.D. from Penn State University and then became a faculty member at North Dakota State University in 2009. She received her master degree from E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and her bachelor degree from Peking University in her hometown of Beijing, China.

Before Dr. Yu joined the academic arena, she was a staff reporter for China Daily covering a variety of topics including social, educational, political, and environmental changes in China. Additionally, she had working experience in two national TV networks, CNN (International Newsgathering, Atlanta) and China Central TV (Sports Channel, Beijing). In 2004, she was honored with a China News Award, the most prestigious journalistic award in China, for a story about disease-control staff investigation of the SARS virus chain