Jessica Wendorf Muhamad, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Communication in the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University, where she serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She is also Director of the PEAKS laboratory (Participatory, Experientially-based Applied Knowledge for Social Change), which focuses on developing, through action research, evidence-based interventions for complex social issues.

As a prevention scientist, Dr. Wendorf Muhamad examines how enacted, entertainment-education experiences—including game-based interventions—shape attitudes and behavior at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. Her research program (1) develops culturally relevant, experientially based health interventions through community-engaged, participatory design; (2) examines how prosocial narrative, embedded within experiential learning, influences attitudes and behaviors around health and social issues while attending to the interpersonal and nonverbal dynamics through which these experiences are communicated; and (3) extends beyond intervention design to a broader account of adoptability and sustainability, examining implementation climate and the social determinants that shape whether interventions take hold within communities and organizations.

Her research has more recently expanded to a broader range of expressive and relational modalities, including human-animal interaction and animal-assisted services, poetry and music therapy, and other expressive arts approaches, informed by clinical training through her MSW. This work is studied through an organizational communication lens attentive to high-reliability organizing, focusing on how healthcare and service organizations sustain trust, safety, and innovation under conditions of risk. A parallel line of work examines how to sustain the volunteers and mental health professionals who deliver care, situating their support within the same communicative and organizational structures.

Her research has been published in Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, and American Journal of Industrial Medicine, among others, as well as book chapters on serious games and communication engagement.

• MSW (Expected Spring 2027); Florida State University, Clinical Social Work
• Ph.D. 2016; University of Miami, Communication
• M.A. 2013; University of Miami, International Administration with minor in Social Policy
• B.A. 2011; Florida International University, Psychology

Health and Applied Communication; Experiential and Entertainment-Education Interventions; Participatory and Mixed-Methods Design; Expressive and Relational Modalities (Human-Animal Interaction, Expressive Arts); Organizational Communication in High-Reliability Contexts; Occupational Health, Safety, and Workforce Sustainability.

Health & Relational Communication; Communication Campaigns & Persuasion Strategies; Applied, Qualitative, & Community-Based Participatory Research Methods (CBPR); Expressive Arts & Interactive Modalities in Healthcare; Experiential & Game-Based Learning Design; Organizational Communication in Health & Social Service Systems.

Dr. Wendorf Muhamad’s academic, research, and teaching contributions have been recognized with numerous national and university honors. She is a Fulbright U.S. Scholar (Fulbright Colombia) and the recipient of the 2024 Leadership Board Faculty Leadership Award from the FSU College of Communication and Information. Her research excellence is reflected in multiple Top Paper Awards from the National Communication Association (including the Applied Communication and Activism & Social Justice divisions), national division awards for contributed handbook chapters, and top honors from the International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play. Her commitment to student-centered mentorship and instruction earned her the All Access Champion Award for accessible education, as well as multiple nominations for FSU’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and recognition as Doctoral Student of the Year at the University of Miami.

Dr. Wendorf Muhamad’s funded research portfolio spans local, national, and international health and prevention initiatives focused on high-reliability settings and vulnerable populations. As Principal Investigator and Game Producer, she led Por Nuestras Calles, a tabletop game-based intervention addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children, funded by the Consortium of Latin American Studies, the Colombian National Police, and the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism. She also served as Principal Investigator for Padres Activos, an experiential health intervention for Hispanic fathers funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD/NIH). Her work as Co-Investigator includes TTEACH (Florida Department of Health), investigating occupational health and safety among temporary construction workers; the Firefighters Campaign for Cancer Prevention & Screening (State of Florida); the Ministers’ Health Project (Minority Men’s Health Initiative/NIMHD); and Jugando a lo Seguro (Tinker Foundation).