John Parrish-Sprowl | Director, Global Health Communication Center Professor, Communication Studies
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

John Parrish-Sprowl PhD currently serves as the Director of the Global Health Communication Center (GHCC) of the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts as well as Professor of Communication Studies and adjunct professor of Women’s Studies. Prior to this position, he was the Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. He also, until recently, served on the Advisory Board of the Community Health Engagement Program (CHEP) of the Indiana Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) in the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition, he is a member of both the University College and the Russian and Eastern Europe Institute faculties of Indiana University.

Professor Parrish-Sprowl has been elected to the legislative Assembly of the National Communication Association, twice as Chair of the Applied Communication Division, and as Chair of the Theory and Methodology along with the Applied Division of the Eastern Communication Association. In addition, he has been a reviewer and editorial board member for a number of Communication journals. He also serves as a research associate of the Center for Intercultural New Media Research (CINMR).

An award-winning educator and consultant, Dr. Parrish-Sprowl is known for his international applied communication research and project consultancies, focusing on issues of health, economic development, and education. His work has resulted in improved performance for a number of organizations in several countries. He has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, been a visiting faculty member, lectured, conducted research and consulted with universities, businesses, and NGOs in a number of countries, including Albania, Belarus, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Netherlands, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. In addition, in the US, he has made presentations to several universities, multiple businesses, and trade groups, as well as TEDx. Dr. Parrish-Sprowl has been honored with awards from his current and past universities, as well as universities in both Macedonia and Poland, plus several other organizations for his work.

Dr. Parrish-Sprowl has presented numerous papers and published several articles and book chapters, including many in award winning volumes, as well as edited books. His work is referenced in The Encyclopedia of Health Communication and appears in such volumes as the Handbook of Applied Communication Research. He has served on numerous dissertation and thesis committees, over 20 of them as the director. Dr. Parrish-Sprowl blends scholarship with practical application, demonstrating the efficacy of engaging complex approaches to communication to manage or solve difficult problems, ones often not perceived as being communication issues.

Within the past few years Dr. Parrish-Sprowl has worked with WHO in the areas of risk communication, radiation emergency response guidelines, and the development of communication capacity related to influenza vaccine production and uptake. A member of WHO Roster of Experts in Social and Behavioral Change, he has conducted training in multiple countries on various aspects of improving communication processes to strengthen health systems and the people they serve.