May G. Kennedy, PhD, Associate Professor

EDUCATION

Georgia State University, Atlanta, B.A. 1974, Psychology
Georgia State University, Atlanta, M.A. 1977, Psychology
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Ph.D. 1982, Psychology
Emory University, Atlanta, M.P.H. 1995, Health Promotion

1979-1981 - Research Associate, Department of Psychology,
Yale University, New Haven, CT.
1982-1988 - Assistant Professor of Psychology, Mercer University, Macon, GA.
1988-1989 - Fellow, Senate Labor and Human Resources Health Staff,
US Congress, Washington, D.C.
1990-1993 - Professional staff, Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, House of Representatives, US Congress, Washington, D.C.
1993-1995 - Fellow, Behavioral Intervention Research Branch, Division of HIV/STD Prevention, CDC.
1995-1999 - Behavioral Scientist, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Intervention, Research, & Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2000-Agency Representative from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
2001-2005 - Health Communications Analyst, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
2005- present - Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Science and Health Promotion, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

OTHER EXPERIENCE AND PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

1981-2000 - Member, Society for Community Research and Action
1981 - SCRA Student Representative to Yale University 
1982 - SCRA Student Representative to GSU
1985-1988 - Regional SCRA Co-coordinator for the Southeast
1989-1991 - Co-chair of SCRA Committee on Women
1988-present - Member, American Psychological Association
1990-Member, APA Task Force on Health Psychology
1990-1992 - Consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Office for the Homeless Mentally Ill.
1991-Member, APA Task Force on Homelessness
1993-present - American Public Health Association
2001-present - Member, Social Marketing National Excellence Collaborative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Turning Point Initiative.
2002-2005 - Member, Expert Evaluation Advisory Committee, VERB! Campaign, CDC.
2004-present - Member, planning committee for the Innovations in Social Marketing conference.
2005-present - Member, Curriculum Committee, Emerging School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University
2006 - Consultation committee member, CDC arthritis campaign in Spanish, administered by Aeffect, Inc.

HONORS

1988 – 1989 - American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Science Fellowship.
1992 - Annual conference of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, winner of the faculty poster award in the public policy category.
1993 – 1995 - NIMH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in public health and HIV/AIDS prevention research, CDC and Emory University.
1997 - 3rd Annual Innovations in Social Marketing Conference, Boston.  Finalist for the Novelli practice award.
2001 - Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention nominee for the Shepherd Award in the prevention category.
1997, 1998,  2001, 2002, 2004 - Financial awards for Quality and Service, CDC

Selected publications (in chronological order)

Kennedy MG, Felner RD, Cauce AM, Primavera J. Social problem-solving and adjustment in adolescence: the influence of moral reasoning, scoring alternatives, and family climate. The Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. 1988;17,73-83.

Polonsky S, Kerr S, Harris B, Gaiter J, Fichtner RR, Kennedy MG. HIV Prevention in Prisons and Jails: Obstacles and Opportunities. Public Health Reports. 1994; September/October, 29-43.

O'Hara PO, Messick BJ, Kennedy MG, Zinkin JR. Sexual behaviors and drug use among youth in dropout-prevention programs -- Miami, 1994. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.1994;43(47),873-876.

Kennedy MG, Neumann MS, Fichtner R, Brachman P. Can maternal and infant syphilis be eradicated?  Should we try? Reproductive Health Matters. 1995; 6, 94-103.

Kennedy MG, O’Hara P, Fichtner R, Fishbein M. Do intentions to use condoms predict condom use among high-risk, multicultural youth?  In: AIDS Education: Interventions in Multicultural Societies. London: Plenum. 1996.

Norman L, Parish K, Kennedy MG. Close relationships and disclosure of HIV status among HIV-infected hemophilic men.  AIDS CARE. 1998; 10, 339-354.

Armstrong KA, Kennedy MG, Kline A, Tunstall C. Reproductive health needs: Comparing women at high, drug-related risk of HIV with a national sample, Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. 1999;54, 1-7.

Kennedy MG, Stover DL, Tormala ZL. Using social marketing to raise funds for prevention programs.  Social Marketing Quarterly. 2000;6(1), 44-53.

Hare ML, Orians CE, Kennedy MG, Goodman KJ, Wijesinha S, Seals B. Lessons learned from the PMI case study: The community perspective.  Social Marketing Quarterly. 2000;6(1), 54-65.

Mizuno Y, Kennedy M, Seals B, Myllyluoma J. Predictors of teens’ attitudes toward condoms: Gender differences in the effects of norms.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 2000;30(7), 1381-1395.

Kennedy MG, Mizuno Y, Hoffman R, Baume C, Strand J. The effect of tailoring a model HIV prevention program for adolescent target audiences.  AIDS Education and Prevention. 2000;12(3),225-238.

Kennedy MG, Mizuno Y, Seals BF, Myllyluoma J, Weeks-Norton K. Increasing condom use among adolescents with coalition-based social marketing, AIDS. 2000;14(12),1809-1818.

Mizuno Y, Kennedy MG, Examination of adolescents who were and were not exposed to Teens Stopping AIDS: Reaching the hard-to-reach. Journal of Health Communication. 2002;7,197-203.

Raposelli KK, Kennedy MG, Miles JR, Tinsley MJ, Rauch KJ, Austin L, Dooley S, Aranda-Naranjo B, Moore RA. HIV/AIDS in Correctional Settings: A salient priority for the CDC and HRSA.  AIDS Education and Prevention. 2002;14, Supplement B, 103-113.

Kennedy MG, Crosby RA. Prevention marketing: An emerging integrated framework.  In: Emerging theories in health promotion practice and research, R.J. DiClemente, R.A. Crosby, and M.C. Kegler (eds).  Jossey-Bass: San Francisco,2002.

Kennedy MG, O’ Leary A, Beck V, Pollard K, Simpson P. Increases in Calls to the CDC national STD and AIDS Hotline following AIDS-related episodes in a soap opera. Journal of Communication. 2004;54, 287-301.

Knapp-Whitter D, Kennedy MG, St. Lawrence J, Beck V.  Effects on gay men’s intentions to be screened for syphilis of viewing an syphilis-related ER episode.  Journal of Health Communication. 2005;10(3),251-260.

Kennedy MG, Beck V, Freimuth V. (2007) Entertainment Education and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care.  Pages 253-276 in T. Edgar, S.M. Noar, & V.S. Freimuth (Eds.) Communication Perspectives on HIV/AIDS for the 21st  Century, Erlbaum Press.
Link to Article

The Communication Evaluation Expert Panel, Abbatangelo-Gray J, Cole G, Kennedy MG, (in press) Guidance for evaluating mass communication health initiatives: Summary of an expert panel discussion sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eval and the Health Professions.

O’Leary A, Kennedy MG, Pappas-DeLuca KA, Nkete M, Beck V, Galavotti C. (2007) Association between exposure to an HIV storyline in the “Bold and the Beautiful” and HIV-related stigma in Botswana. AIDS Education and Prev, 19(3),209-217.

RESEARCH

Central Area Heath Education Council
Underutilization of Health Information Resource Centers:  A Formative Study
The purpose of this grant is to inform the design of a future promotional campaign that would target directly potential consumers and/or personal network members of hospital-based, free public information services from consumer resource centers that belong to the COIN network in Richmond, VA.  Role: Subaward Principal Investigator

CDC Intramural Research

A 5-site, 5-year HIV prevention demonstration project for adolescents that included a radio soap opera in one site.

A study examining the effects on HIV stigma of viewing an HIV-relevant storyline in a television situation comedy.

A project developing a searchable intranet formative research database of audience research conducted at CDC in order to inform future communication interventions.

A project comparing the results of on-line and face-to-face focus group discussions conducted with mothers of “tweens.” The topic was facilitators and barriers of physical activity for their children.

Guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives  on what was learned about emergency risk communications from the anthrax bioterrorist attacks of 2001.  

Role:  Lead Scientist/Contract Technical Monitor

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