The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) students have made a significant impact at the national D.C. Health Communication Conference, hosted by George Mason University from May 1 to May 3, 2025, in Herndon, Virginia. Anne Nicotera, professor and organizer of the biannual event, praised the quality of work presented by TCNJ undergraduates, stating that their papers “provide renewed hope for our health communication discipline and our world.”
Nicotera expressed her admiration for the record-breaking number of 14 student papers accepted for presentation through a blind refereed competition. She noted that TCNJ undergraduate presentations often meet or surpass the professional standards expected of PhD candidates.
These papers were co-authored by 45 students in fall 2024 classes taught by John C. Pollock, a professor in both the Department of Communication, Journalism, and Film and the Department of Public Health at TCNJ. The students chose their own topics related to society’s impact on media and tested “community structure” theory to examine relationships between community demographics and news coverage variations on critical issues.
The topics explored included abortion access, climate change, disability accommodation, homelessness, obesity, opioid use in U.S. cities; as well as international subjects like conflict zone migration, drug trafficking, human trafficking, male contraception, men’s mental health issues during pandemics, and sexual violence.
One notable achievement was a paper presented by Theresa Leighton ’25 alongside Blen Tesfahun ’27, Samantha Matson ’27, and Roman Fabbricatore ’25 on cross-national coverage of migration from conflict zones. This paper received the “Top Undergraduate Student-Led Abstract Award” for its excellence among all conference submissions.
Other TCNJ students who participated include Christopher DeSantis ’25; Caroline Dowd ’26; Jacqueline Faulk ’26; Emily Ferrer ’25; Mabintou Fofana ’27; Kyle Levy ’25; Rebecca Heath ’25; Natalie Roesch ’25; Jennifer Romero ’25; and Samyuktha Senthil ’25.
Rebecca Heath described her experience at the conference as “eye-opening and inspiring,” emphasizing how it allowed her to present original research while learning from distinguished scholars impacting health communication.
Natasha Patterson highlighted these collaborative achievements as evidence of strong interdisciplinary collaboration at TCNJ. She credited Dr. Pollock’s joint appointment with Public Health and CJF departments for providing unique opportunities for students to explore public health issues through media perspectives.
Susan Ryan also commended all student presenters for their hard work on important issues deserving recognition. Their participation was supported partly by a scholarship fund established by Charles and Barbaranne DiMarco in memory of their son Garrett DiMarco ’10. The fund assists sophomores through seniors majoring in communication studies with expenses related to presenting research at academic conferences.
