About

Dr. Katie Abrams

The content on this website illustrates social marketing projects or components of larger projects led by Katie Abrams. Professor Abrams' expertise is at the intersection of strategic communication and environmental and food issues. She is particularly interested in message design and strategy and their roles in behavior change and the social marketing framework. Since 2014, she's had the privilege of leading four large, applied social marketing projects on behalf of the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Working with dozens of CSU students and local collaborators, the research has demonstrated new ways in which social marketing approaches can increase wildlife-friendly behavior among visitors to Hawaii and 10 national parks across the U.S. This award-winning work is published in top academic journals and has been featured in major media outlets, including NPR and USA Today.

  • Watch a short video highlighting some of this work with CSU and University of Hawaii-Hilo students in 2021.

Currently, she's working with Dr. Ashley Anderson by applying her expertise in audience research, strategic communication and social marketing, and campaign evaluation on an interdisciplinary EPA project to encourage higher risk communities to incorporate air quality information into their daily decision-making to protect their health.

More broadly, she advises students with interests in public relations, advertising, and institutional communication, as well as those with interests specific to communication regarding conservation, food, agriculture, or health. She uses survey, experimental, in-depth interview, focus group, and direct observation methods in her research.

If you are interested in social marketing or strategic communication and behavior change for conservation or nutrition-related behaviors, I would love to talk about your fit with our undergraduate or graduate programs!

Prior to joining the department in August 2013, she was a faculty member in advertising and agricultural communication at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Her interests in conservation, agriculture, and health come from her degrees in agricultural communication from Purdue University (B.S.) and the University of Florida (M.S., Ph. D.). Her professional experience is in web and graphic design and marketing and messaging research.

Publications

Abrams, K., Molder, A., Nankey, P., & Leong, K. (2023). Encouraging respectful wildlife viewing among tourists: Roles for social marketing, regulatory information, symbolic barriers, and enforcement. Social Marketing Quarterly, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/15245004231153085

Abrams, K., Bice, C., & Dietsch, A. (accepted). Social marketing as a strategy to enhance wildlife protection: Four field studies in U.S. national park campgrounds. International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada.

Abrams, K., Bonser, C., & McCord, A. (2020). Exploring science communication effectiveness in the U.S. federal government research process: A case study with the us livestock producers' antimicrobial use research. Journal of Applied Communications, 104(4). https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2343

Abrams, K. M., Leong, K., Melena, S., & Teel, T. (2019). Encouraging safe wildlife viewing in national parks: Effects of a communication campaign on visitors’ behavior. Environmental Communication, 14(2), 255-270.

Abrams, K., & Soukup, C. (2017). Matching local food messages to consumer motivators: An experiment comparing the effects of differently framed messages. Journal of Applied Communications, 101(4).

Abrams, K., Evans, C., & Duff, B. (2015). Ignorance is bliss: How parents of preschool children make sense of front-of-package visuals and claims on food. Appetite, 87. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.12.100