Amanda D. Boyd

Amanda Boyd (PhD, University of Calgary) is an assistant professor of risk communication at Washington State University. Her research program focuses on health and science communication – particularly how risks are communicated to and perceived among rural and Indigenous populations.  

Her research focuses on two main areas including how environmental health risks are communicated to Indigenous populations.  Much of this research includes understanding how contaminants are communicated to Inuit in the Arctic. The primary goal of this research is to examine the impact of communications on risk perceptions and behavior, and how to develop more effective and culturally relevant health risk communications. Her work also includes examining how rural communities and the general public perceives energy systems development (such as carbon capture and storage, nuclear power plants and hydro-electric projects) and how this impacts support for or opposition to technology development and implementation.

Amanda is affiliated with the Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research and is a member of the Science Communication Research Group at The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. She works with the Health, Environment, and Indigenous Communities (HEIC) Research Group at Trent University and is on the executive committee for the Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO) at Washington State University.

Boyd began her career as a public relations specialist. She worked in marketing and public relations in the ski industry, where she developed and managed community initiative programs, planned events and created marketing materials. She has also been a public relations consultant on numerous projects in the energy sector and other industries.  She currently teaches courses in public relations and risk communication in The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.