Grace Hildenbrand

Grace Hildenbrand is a doctoral candidate studying Health Communication in the Brian Lamb School of Communication. She received her Master of Arts in Communication Studies with a Certificate in Corporate Communication and Training from Texas State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communication with a minor in Leadership Studies from Washburn University.

Hildenbrand studies healthcare provider communication techniques that are useful for explaining medical information and establishing positive relationships with patients. Another research area she explores is campaign development and evaluation. Her third key area of research is health literacy and message translation, evaluating message clarity to identify areas of improvement, and instructing healthcare providers in clear communication techniques.  Hildenbrand also has research interests in instructional and organizational communication.

In her time at Purdue, Hildenbrand has had the opportunity to serve as a communication consultant for Purdue human resources, and provide brief communication workshops for first-year medical students at the Indiana University School of Medicine-West Lafayette.

Before coming to Purdue, Hildenbrand worked at Washburn University as the Communications Coordinator and Assistant to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Representative Publications

Hildenbrand, G. M., Perrault, E. K., & Devine, T. M. (in press). You may call me professor:
          Professor form of address in email communication and college student reactions to not
          knowing what to call their professors. Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

Hildenbrand, G. M. & Houser, M. L. (2020). An investigation of college student
          learner orientation impact on perceptions of instructor behavior alteration
          techniques/messages. Educational Research Quarterly. 43(3), 3-23.

Perrault, E. K., & Hildenbrand, G. M. (2020). The buffering effect of healthcare provider video
          biographies when viewed in combination with negative reviews: “You can’t fake nice.”
          Journal of Medical Internet Research. 22(4), e16635. https://doi.org/10.2196/16635

Perrault, E. K., Hildenbrand, G. M., Loew, T. F., & Evans, W. G. (2020). Evaluation of a
          university’s smart partying social norms campaign including emoji-style messaging.
          Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 13(1), 35-45.
          https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2020.1753471

Perrault, E. K., & Hildenbrand, G. M. (2019). Breaking down benefits: Employee understanding
          of benefits, and readability levels of university benefits handbooks. Compensation &
          Benefits Review, 51(1), 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368719863532