About

My name is Dr. Marleah Dean Kruzel (PhD, Texas A&M University), and I am an Assistant Professor in Health Communication at the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida. I research the interpersonal patient-provider relationship in health communication. Specifically, I seek to understand the ways in which communication between healthcare providers, patients, and their families can influence health, well-being, and quality of life. This research interest has led me to two main areas of study—ambulatory care and cancer care. For example, one of my current research programs investigates individuals who are highly predisposed to breast and ovarian cancer due to the genetic mutation BRCA but have not been diagnosed with cancer.

My work has been published in journal outlets such as Health Communication, Academic Medicine, Patient Education & Counseling, Journal of Health & Mass Communication, and Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management as well as invited as chapters in books including the Handbook of Communication Competence, Communicating Health: Personal, Cultural, and Political Complexities, Textbook of Palliative Care, and Organizations, Communication, and Health. In addition, I have presented my work on patient-provider communication and health at local, regional, and national conferences and international health conferences at St. Andrews University, Scotland and in Montreal, Quebec. As a BRCA2 mutation carrier myself, I am also committed to giving back to my community as a volunteer for Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE)—an organization committed to making sure no patient or family member goes through hereditary cancer alone—and a blogger for "The Patient and the Professor." Finally, in addition to research, I love to teach. Two of my favorite classes are health communication and patient-provider communication.