Deena Kemp is an assistant professor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Health Communication at UT Austin. Her research draws on persuasion, emotion, and behavioral economics theories to inform communication interventions that improve social outcomes. She is particularly interested in the impact of hard-hitting message strategies, such as the use disgust-evoking images, on decision making in the contexts of health and charity aid communication. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Social and Economic Sciences, The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, and Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

A dominant theme of her research is understanding how communication campaigns can be used to address substance misuse and prevention. Before coming to UT, Kemp was part of an NIH/FDA sponsored grant examining the impact of cigarette graphic warning labels among low-income populations while completing her doctoral studies at Cornell University. In 2022, she was selected as an NIH Scholar with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Currently, she is a co-PI on a Texas Targeted Opioid Response grant-funded campaign and research program.

Kemp completed both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mass communication and public relations at the University of South Florida. She also completed training in Health Management and Leadership through the USF College of Public Health. She has more than a decade of experience developing and implementing communication strategies for community and academic health organizations, including serving as the associate director of stewardship and communication for the University of South Florida Health System and more recently as a consultant with Harris County Public Health.