Andrews and Haywood Named Presidential Ph.D. Fellows

The University of Pennsylvania recently announced that Annenberg School doctoral students Mary E. Andrews and Antoine Haywood are among the recipients of its inaugural class of Presidential Ph.D. Fellows. The 2021 Presidential Ph.D. Fellows are some of the most accomplished and diverse Ph.D. trainees from across the university.

“Our Ph.D. students embody our profound mission of creating new knowledge, understanding, and teaching that will shape the future,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “They make a tangible impact by tackling the world’s most significant challenges and most perplexing questions. Sustaining their world-changing scholarship will be more important than ever in a post-pandemic world.”

Each Presidential Ph.D. Fellow will receive a three-year fellowship, including summer support and funds to support their research. In 2021-22, the annual stipend will be $38,000 with research funds of $10,000. The fellowship will renew automatically for students in good academic standing.

A health communication scholar, Andrews uses neuroscience, behavioral, and self-report methods to study how the intersection of identities and social experiences influence the way individuals process different types of messages, and how exposure to messages leads to changes in health behavior. Her research is largely focused on examining the effects of exposure to tobacco advertisements on people from marginalized groups who have been disproportionally harmed by the tobacco industry, and exploring the effectiveness of different types of health communication strategies to reduce health disparities.

Andrew’s current studies include examining the effects of tobacco marketing on adult smokers in Philadelphia, and evaluating different types of anti-tobacco messages’ ability to reduce smoking for young adult sexual minority women. With the research funds from the fellowship, she plans to build on her research related to tobacco health disparities and marginalized groups.

Andrews has presented her research at the International Communication Association, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and the DC Health Communication conferences. She holds a bachelors degree in cognitive neuroscience from Hampshire College, and was the recipient of a postbaccalaureate fellowship from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. She currently serves as Annenberg’s representative on Penn’s Student Health Advisory Board.

A scholar of media, Haywood’s research focuses on understanding the contemporary relevance of public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access media. Using ethnographic methods and drawing on his 15 years of experience working in community media, he evaluates how local governments, nonprofit organizations, and citizens use geographically defined communication infrastructures to enhance civic participation, democratic communication, collective learning, and care.

Haywood’s current project focuses on understanding how social impact occurs when Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities in Philadelphia use community-based info hubs to access digital platforms and tell stories about local issues. The fellowship funding will allow him to expand this project and analyze what BIPOC communities accomplish through using community media, what resources are required to sustain local media networks, whether community media function as sites for building community, and how BIPOC groups use local media to heal and repair community harms.

Haywood has presented his research at the International Communication Association conference, and he has been published in Journalism Practice. He holds a bachelors degree in English from Morehouse College and a master’s degree in Media Studies from The New School. He was a recipient of the 2020-2021 Graduate Fellowship for Teaching Excellence from Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning.

Click here for a full list of the inaugural Presidential Ph.D. Fellows.