Dr. Dodson is a Research Scientist. She received her doctorate in Mass Communication and a certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds an MA in Communication Management from the University of Southern California. Dr. Dodson’s research focuses on the influence of media messages on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and role of critical media analysis in the processing of media messages. She has worked on the development and evaluation of Media Aware, a media literacy education program for adolescent sexual health promotion, and Media Aware Parent, which is designed to enhance parent-child communication about sexual and relationship health. Her work has been published in academic journals, and presented at national and international conferences. Dr. Dodson also has over twelve years of professional experience in advertising and consumer research.