Amanda J. Young
PROFESSOR (COMMUNICATION STUDIES)
About
Dr. Young joined the Department of Communication in 2004, after serving as director of communication research at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System in Pittsburgh, PA, for 5 years. Her research in health communication has focused on rhetorical agency in patient/provider interactions in chronic illness, as well as geriatrics, end-of-life care, public health communication, and health literacy. Since 2017, she has studied the communication and social justice issues surrounding Sickle Cell Disease. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Health Communication, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, The Journal of Family Communication, Qualitative Health Research, Frontiers in Public Health, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, Technical Communication Quarterly, and others, as well as in the edited volume, Rhetoric in Detail: Discourse Analytic Approaches to Rhetorical Text and Talk, where she explores rhetorical agency and voice. In addition to several smaller projects, she is a co-investigator on SCDC, a CDC-funded sickle cell disease surveillance project, and SCDCGENE, a collaboration with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and other institutions that works with sickle cell stakeholders and providers to develop informed consent materials for gene therapy. Dr. Young uses qualitative research methods in the context of community-based participatory research.
Education
Ph.D., Rhetoric, Carnegie Mellon University
M.A., Technical and Professional Writing, Eastern Washington University
B.S., English Composition, Davis and Elkins College
Sample Publications
Young, A. J., Stewart, C. O., & Onry, M. N. (2024). Sickle cell journeys: Healthcare providers at the frontlines. Southern Communication Journal, 1-15.
Young, A. J., Maresh, A., Pope, S., Blaylark, R., Stephens, L., Aderoju, R., . . . Desai, J. (2023). Improving the Lives of People with Sickle Cell Disease: Community Organizations and Epidemiologists Working Together. Progress in Community Health Partnership: Research, Education and Action. Preprint: .
Plaxco AP, Hankins JS, Davis RL, Dudley J, Young AJ, Mukhopadyay A, Carroll YM, Aguinaga M, Takemoto CM, Nolan VG, Ray MA, Wiese A, Amosun TA, Cooper WO, Smeltzer MP. Descriptive epidemiology of sickle cell disease in Tennessee: Population-based estimates from 2008 to 2019. Front. Hematol. 2023;2. doi:10.3389/frhem.2023.1277548
Sharma, A., Young, A. J., Carroll, Y., Darji, H., Li, Y., Mandrell, B., . . . Johnson, L. M. (2023). Gene therapy in sickle cell disease: Attitudes and informational needs of patients and caregivers. Pediatric Blood and Cancer. DOI: 10.1002/pbc.30319. Akshay Sharma and Amanda Young contributed equally to this study and are joint first authors.
Stewart, C. O., & Young, A. J. (2022). Something with a frightening reputation": 60 Minutes' accommodation of HIV in gene therapy for sickle cell disease. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, 5(1), 66-92.
Young, A. J., Richardson, F., Fitzgerald, D., . . .Grant, C. (2020). Let their voices be seen: using photovoice to understand the experiences of sickle cell patients in the emergency department. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 76(3); S73-S77.
Young, A. J., & Kim, L. (2018). Moving toward patient autonomy: A case study of communication in adolescent cystic fibrosis care. ACLP Bulletin, 36(1), 24-33.
Young, A. J, Kim, L., Li S., Baker, J., Schmidt, M., Camp, J. W., & Barfield, R. C. (2010). Agency and communication challenges in discussion of informed consent in pediatric cancer research. Qualitative Health Research 20; 628-643