Designing Audience‑Informed MessagesCornell Course

Katherine McComas is a risk communication scholar whose research and teaching focus on understanding motivations and barriers surrounding communication about scientific, technological, and environmental risk issues. Such communication takes place in many venues, from the front page of the New York Times to the website of the CDC, to the local public meeting, to the doctor’s office, to the visitors’ center in our national parks.

Professor McComas’ current research examines ways to develop risk messages that encourage greater awareness of the linkages between human, animal, and environmental health and well-being (“One Health”). Current research also focuses on public acceptability of risk in the context of new and renewable energy technologies.

Professor McComas’ longstanding commitment to working closely with community partners in both her research and teaching programs paved a pathway to her current role as Cornell University’s Vice Provost for Engagement and Land-Grant Affairs. In this position, she helps steward the university’s public engagement mission.

Dominic Balog-Way is Assistant Professor of Risk Communication in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. His research examines how people, organizations, and societies communicate, interpret, and govern risk under conditions of uncertainty. From public health and pharmaceuticals to climate change, energy transitions, food safety and artificial intelligence, Professor Balog-Way’s work explores how strategic risk communication can help people navigate complex and often contested societal challenges.

Professor Balog-Way’s research is guided by three interconnected questions: Why do we disagree about risk? How can we tackle complex risk communication problems? And how do our interpretations of concepts such as transparency, misinformation, and uncertainty shape communication, policy, and public decision making?

Drawing on collaborations with organizations including the OECD, the European Medicines Agency, the UK Cabinet Office (during COVID-19), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Health, and industry and nonprofit partners, Professor Balog-Way combines theoretical and applied research to develop evidence-informed approaches to strategic risk communication. Through his research and teaching, he seeks to help current and future leaders communicate more effectively in complex, contested, and rapidly changing risk communication ecosystems.