Zexin “Marsha” Ma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Research Overview
Dr. Ma conducts research at the intersection of health communication, persuasion, and media psychology. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of storytelling in promoting health behavior change. Her recent work includes developing and testing the effectiveness of narrative pictorial warning labels to communicate health risks and addressing health-related misinformation. Dr. Ma is deeply involved in collaborative, interdisciplinary research. Currently, she is collaborating with colleagues across disciplines on projects aimed at enhancing risk perceptions and behaviors related to air pollution and improving enrollment in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs among underserved populations. She has also served as the Principal Investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project on alcohol and cancer communication.
Education
PhD, University of Maryland-College Park, 2018 (communication)
MA, University of Maryland-College Park, 2015 (communication)
BA, Communication University of China, 2013 (communication)
Recent/Selected Publications
| zexin.ma@uconn.edu |