Dr. Wayne Beach
Professor
School of Communication
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
SDSU
Primary Email: [email protected]
Building/Location
Communication - 237B
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego,
CA
92182-4560
Files
Bio
Dr. Beach is Professor in the School of Communication at SDSU, and Director of the Center for Communication, Health, and the Public Good. He is also faculty on the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, Adjunct Professor, Department of Surgery, and Member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego.
His research and teaching focus on the convergence of conversational and institutional interactions. He has pioneered diverse studies focusing on the social organization of verbal and embodied features of everyday talk and action. A particular concern with health and illness has given rise to long-term investigations of how family members talk through cancer on the telephone, medical interviewing in primary, preventive, and oncological care, and related illness dilemmas (e.g., bulimia, obesity, chest pain, cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis).
He is the author of more than 100 publications, including Conversations about Illness (1996) and A Natural History of Family Cancer (2009), which received two prestigious book awards from the National Communication Association: The 2010-2011 Outstanding Book Award (Health Communication Division) and the Outstanding Scholarship Award (Language & Social Interaction Division). He also edited the first Handbook of Patient-Provider Interactions (2013). External funding for Dr. Beach’s research has been awarded from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and several philanthropic foundations in San Diego
Other recent awards include: The 2018 Distinguished Scholar Award, National Communication Association; The 2017 Distinguished Scholar Award, Western States Communication Association; 2017 Outstanding Publication Award, Language & Social Interaction Division, National Communication Association; 2017 TRIP (Translating Research into Practice) Scholar Award, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis; Translational Entertainment and Education Award from George Mason University; SDSU’s President’s Leadership Fund and Dean’s Excellence Awards; and SDSU’s Faculty ‘Monty’ and Professor of the Year Awards for Outstanding Research & Teaching Contributions.