My work has been funded and honored through several organizations, including NIH/NIMHD, the National Communication Association, state, and university initiatives. In addition, I have been honored to give guest talks nationally and internationally.
2023-25- Reese Phifer Fellow ($37,500), Journalism and Creative Media, College of Communication & Information Sciences, The University of Alabama (Three-year term supporting a tenured faculty member’s research project; this supports a large scale project in health communication and big data)
2022 – Faculty Fellow, Alabama Life Research Institute
2022 – Invited Academic Expert Guest on Health Communication and Big Data, The University of Mississippi, IMC Connect; multi-day event fostering connections and collaboration among stakeholders including academics and marketing organizations
2022 – Invited Speaker, University of Amsterdam Computational Communication Science Group
2022 – Special Collection on Health Promotion Practice with and From/Indigenous/Native American/American Indian Communities, Article selected in a Collection from Health Promotion Practice, ‘Sharing Hope and Healing: A culturally tailored social media campaign to promote living kidney donation and transplantation among Native Americans’ (funded out of NIH/NIMH) (Britt, Britt, Anderson, Fahrenwald, Harming). View here.
2021 – Most Influential Articles in 2020 Ongoing Collection, American Academy of Advertising Journals. Article selected in a collection in progress by the Editors for lead manuscript ‘Too big to sell? A computational analysis of network and content characteristics among mega and micro beauty and fashion social media influencers’ (Britt, Hayes, Britt, & Park, 2020). View here.
2020 – Top Paper Award, National Communication Association- Peter Berge, Rebecca K. Britt
2018 – Top Paper Award, Communication and the Future Division, National Communication Association
2017 – Dr. Sherwood and Elizabeth Berg Young University Award, South Dakota State University, Research Award established via an endowment given annually to one faculty member for outstanding career potential in research with a $3000 Award
2017 – Award, Top Article for Research in Technical and Scientific Communication, Conference on College Composition and Communication, nominated by Editor Donna Kain, for article in Technical Communication Quarterly, Dr. Rebecca K. Britt & Dr. Kristen Hatten
2016 – 25 Under 35 Award, Saint Joseph Academy, competitive award given to alumnus who “have gone above and beyond in their personal and professional endeavors since graduation and live the mission of the Academy embodied by SJA and its founders.”
2015 – Top Paper Award, Communication and the Future Division, National Communication Association
2015 – 2016 Graduate Commencement Speaker and Reader, South Dakota State University; Announcer and Reader of names of graduate students (Videos publicly available at sdstate.edu)
2015 – Top Paper Award, Health Communication Division, Central States Communication Association
2014 – Top Paper Award, Communication and the Future Division, National Communication Association
2014 – Top Paper Award, Research Division, Broadcast Education Association
Select Grants, Funding, and Contracts
2023- Alabama Water Institute- Innovation Grant, Lead PI- Dr. Rebecca K. Britt, Co-PIs Dr. Matt VanDyke, Dr. Leigh Terry, Department of Advertising and Public Relations and College of Engineering
2022 – Strategic Fund, College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama, Dr. Rebecca K. Britt and Dr. Steven Holiday
2022 – Strategic Fund, College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama, Dr. Rebecca K. Britt and Dr. Jiyoung Lee
2022- NIH R03 Grant- Dr. Rebecca K. Britt, Brian C. Britt, Bharat Mehra, Jameson Hayes (Submitted)
2022- Alabama Power Foundation Grant, Dr. Rebecca K. Britt and Dr. Matthew Van Dyke (Submitted)
2021 – Institute for Communication and Information Sciences Research Grant, The University of Alabama, Testing eHealth literacy interventions on reducing misinformation sharing intentions. Dr. Jiyoung Lee and Dr. Rebecca K. Britt (Co-PI)
2019 – Strategic Fund, College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama
2020 – FLC Faculty Learning Community: The S13 Project Award
2018 – College of Communication and Information Sciences Strategic Funding Grant, Addressing oral health disparities in Alabama through pilot research: Pairing qualitative inquiry with data mining organizational conversations on social networking sites. Dr. Rebecca K. Britt (PI) and Dr. Aibek Musaev (The University of Alabama)
2018 – Strategic Fund, College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama
2018 – Faculty Fellowship Award, Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, supports service learning course development, community engagement and CESR partnerships; comes with a $1500 stipend (The University of Alabama)
2018 – Experiential Learning Faculty Award, Social media resources to improve research and course development, College of Arts & Sciences (South Dakota State University)
2017 – Experiential Learning Faculty Award, Statewide partnership with Project SEARCH and social media, College of Arts & Sciences (South Dakota State University)
2017-18 – State of SD Statewide Experiential Partnership Award
2016-18 – National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Sharing hope and healing: Evaluating and promoting living kidney donation through a social media campaign, Award #U54MD008164 (Co-PI).
- Led development of multimodal stimulus including editing and construction of video, graphics and materials for campaign dissemination
- Launched and maintained campaign over a 6-month period
- Led 1 manuscript and assisted with 2 additional manuscripts; 3 conference presentations; 1 public presentation of research; planning sessions prior to and upon conclusion of the project
2016 – 17 Scholarly Excellence Fund (South Dakota State University)
- Developing mobile media resources for research and class purposes as part of the Social Media Minor
- Led the development of a Mobile Media Applications course using mobile media and programming resources
2016 – National Communication Association Advancing the Discipline Grant (Britt, Britt, Anderson) (PI)
2015 – Nonprofit State Grant, Campaign to increase awareness and cervical cancer and HPV uptake at SDSU and the Brookings Community (PI)
2015 – Research and Scholarship Support Grant, Campaign messages to increase exposure to organ donation: A multi-mediated approach rooted in the theory of planned behavior. (South Dakota State University)
- Launched campaign over a year long period in tandem with Student Health Clinic to promote organ donation among local community and students including pre and post test of message strategies
2014 – SEED Startup Grant, State of South Dakota
2013 – SEED Fund, Development of an online persuasion class for communication studies (University of Akron), Dr. Rebecca K. Britt, Dr. Turner (Co-PI)
2012 – SEED Startup Research, Development of new and mobile media strategies for communication and health (University of Akron), PI.
2007-10 – Funded Graduate Research Assistant on Health Resource and Services Administration Division of Transplantation, Show us Your Heart: Point of decision grassroots and media campaign to increase organ donor registrations. (PI: Harrison).
Dr. Rebecca K. Britt 