About me
Hello and welcome to my personal website! My name is Zixiao Yang (“杨紫潇” in Chinese; hear my name). Currently, I am a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Communication at the University of Miami. My research interests include crisis communication and mental health, mediated health communication, and intercultural communication. I consider myself to be a researcher who is highly analytical, self-motivated, and driven, with a broad range of skills in both quantitative and qualitative research, including, but not limited to, (quasi-) experimental designs, surveys, content analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and textual analysis (NVivo). I am trained using SPSS or R to conduct univariate statistical analysis, multivariate statistical analysis, regression analysis, meta-analysis, factor analysis, etc. I am also an instructor of record in the Department of Strategic Communication and the Department of Communication Studies. I teach STC 103: Statistical Reasoning for Strategic Communication (Evaluation in Fall 2022: 4.5/5.0) and will teach COS 325: Communication in Health Organizations this fall. I am very fortunate to be advised by Dr. Michelle I. Seelig from Department of Interactive Media, University of Miami. I was advised by Dr. Nicholas Carcioppolo from Department of Communication Studies, University of Miami.
You can find my CV here: Zixiao Yang’s Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D. in Communication, University of Miami, 09/2021 – 05/2025 (expected)
M.A. in Communication, University of Miami, 08/2019 – 05/2021
B.A. in Advertising, Henan University of Economics and Law, 09/2015 – 07/2019
My Journey to Academia
“Be the president or else an advertising guy” —— Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a freshman, I was determined to become an advertising mogul like David MacKenzie Ogilvy. The idea of being part of the advertising elite was my lifelong goal, but everything changed when I graduated from undergrad. One person and one event completely altered my trajectory.
One person was my maternal grandmother, who unfortunately passed away due to COVID-19. During my time in college, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and her rapid decline deeply affected me. I initially regretted not studying brain science to help her, but my academic journey led me to a new passion. Pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Miami, I discovered the field of health communication. Through my studies, I learned how communication studies can be used to explain mental health issues and improve mental health interventions. I delved into entertainment education (E-E) theory, the Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model (E-ELM), and the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). During my first year of graduate school, I was advised by Dr. Michael Beatty, whose encouragement became the catalyst for my decision to pursue a Ph.D. Although I never expected to pursue academia, I am grateful for the path that led me here, and for the opportunity to use my knowledge to make a difference in the lives of others. How to design health information and improve the effect of health interventions on mental health became the starting point of my academic career.
One event was the urban flooding that occurred in my hometown. The urban flood of July 20, 2021, known as the “720” flood in Henan province, was catastrophic, and Zhengzhou, the provincial capital with a population of 12 million, was the hardest-hit city. As a survivor of the disaster, I witnessed firsthand the devastation that the floods wrought, with houses collapsing, cars toppling over, and the subway system inundated with water. The rainfall from the flood was so intense that Zhengzhou received a record-breaking 8.0 inches in just a single hour. The experience deeply touched me, and I knew that I wanted to use my knowledge to help my hometown and my friends recover from this tragedy. This event determined the direction of my research, with a focus on the media and post-disaster mental health (e.g., posttraumatic growth). As a result, my research has become more vertical and deeper, driven by a strong commitment to helping those affected by crisis events.