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Lucy Atkinson (PhD, University of Wisconsin – Madison) is an associate professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & PR in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research looks at communication in the context of sustainability and the environment. She focuses on the ways message components (like visual elements, argument frames, source factors) in environmental communication campaigns influence environmental attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.
She has received research funding from the Department of Energy, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society, and the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State. Atkinson’s work has appeared in top-ranked flagship journals, like the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Communication, Environmental Communication and Science Communication. Outside of academia, her work has been covered in international and national news media, including the Guardian (UK) newspaper, and National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and On Point with Tom Ashbrook.
Atkinson is a senior faculty research affiliate with the UT Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication and a faculty affiliate with the Environmental Science Institute, the Center for Health Communication, the Center for Women's & Gender Studies and the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.
She teaches classes on advertising history, environmental communication, integrated communication campaigns and consumer psychology. In 2016 she was named a recipient of the UT System Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2017 was named a Provost Teaching Fellow.
Before pursuing her doctorate, Atkinson worked for several years as a newspaper reporter in New York.
Atkinson completed her M.A. at New York University and her B.A. at McGill University.
