Camila Espina Young is a research social scientist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Structures Group, within the Materials and Structural Systems Division of the Engineering Laboratory. Prior to joining NIST, Young worked as a journalism adjunct teaching Communication Research at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. Trained as a mass communication researcher, Young leverages her mixed-methods skillset to better understand how different aspects of communication impact the way in which people respond to messages and content. Her work seeks to improve risk, crisis, and disaster communication outcomes by incorporating research-based principles and practices.
She holds a PhD in mass communication from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia; an MA in media studies from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York; and a BA in information and journalism from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her current research interests include the role of visuals in disaster and emergency communication efforts; the social amplification of risk; media effects; and audience perceptions, attention as well as behavior.