Madison Williams

Biography:

Maddie is a first-year M.A. student and teaching assistant in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University, specializing in Health Communication. She earned her BS in Public Relations with a second major in Psychology and a minor in Graphic Design from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in May 2025.

Research and Teaching:

Maddie’s research focuses on improving health outcomes and expanding access to reliable health resources in underserved communities. She uses mixed-methods approaches to understand community needs and design effective health communication strategies.

She previously worked in Dr. Jeff Larsen’s Mixed Affect and Emotion Laboratory, where she examined how people share and experience mixed emotions in social media posts. Her undergraduate thesis was a public relations campaign for the University of Tennessee Public Speaking Center that began with a mixed-methods survey of more than 400 students to assess perceptions of the center and culminated in a full-length, ready-to-use campaign.

This year, Maddie teaches COM 114: Fundamentals of Speech Communication and is excited to help students build confidence and skill in public speaking.