College of Communication and Information

Dr. Dillon Pruett is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders and Director of the Stuttering Phenomics and Genomics Lab. His research leverages electronic health records and biobanks to identify health patterns and genetic risk factors linked to stuttering. This work integrates clinical informatics, statistical genetics, and speech-language pathology. He earned his PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in genetics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Patrick F. Merle, a French native, is a Professor in the School of Communication at Florida State University. He was previously an international reporter for global news organizations. He earned his Ph.D. in Communication from Texas Tech University in 2013. Currently, Dr. Merle serves as the Director of the School of Communication (2020-present), after having previously been the Director of the Integrated Marketing Communication program.

Dr. Min Sook Park specializes in data-intensive, user-centered health informatics, focusing on chronic conditions and their caregivers. Her research explores the relationship between information technology and health users to support individuals managing hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. Collaborating with interdisciplinary teams, she develops innovative health applications, including a voice-activated mobile health app for chronic disease management. Utilizing computational methods, Dr.

Dr. Sladjana Lukic is a language neuroscientist with multidisciplinary expertise in formal linguistics, stroke and primary progressive aphasias, and neuroimaging. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders at FSU and Director of NoLaB Lab, where her work focuses on disentangling linguistic (dis)abilities in people with aphasia and uncovering their underlying neuroanatomical correlates using both structured language tests and naturalistic speech measures.

Dr. Yunjung Kim is a professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders and directs the FSU Motor Speech Laboratory. Her primary research interests lie in the transformation from a talker’s articulatory behavior to listeners’ reaction. Specifically, her work has focused on identifying acoustic and articulatory characteristics of speech produced by people with neurologic conditions that negatively impact their speech intelligibility.

Dr. Zilong Xie is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders. Previously, he was with the University of Kansas Medical Center. Xie earned his doctorate in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Kaitlin Lansford is Associate Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders and Director of FSU’s Motor Speech Disorders Lab, where she conducts research on dysarthric speech perception. Her work focuses on perceptual training, which offers a promising avenue for improving intelligibility of people with dysarthria by offsetting the communicative burden from the patient onto their primary communication partners. She earned her Ph.D. in speech and hearing science from Arizona State University.

Dr. Mia Liza A. Lustria is a professor in the School of Information. She earned her doctorate in communication from the University of Kentucky in 2005 and joined Florida State University's faculty the same year. Her research explores different ways that persuasive technologies and interactive media can be leveraged to empower health consumers and improve access to health care.

Dr. Ulla Bunz is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2002. Dr. Bunz conducts research on the positive effects of technology (e.g. digital games, social media, Internet, mobile phone) across the adult lifespan. This research also includes personality factors that persist over time, health benefits derived from the use of technology, strengthening of inter-generational ties, and overall quality of life.

Dr. Paul F. Marty is Professor in the School of Information within the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University, Florida’s iSchool. He has a background in ancient history and computer science engineering, and his Ph.D. is from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1996 to 2002, he was Director of Information Technology at the Spurlock Museum. Dr. Marty’s research and teaching interests include museum informatics, information behavior, and user-centered design.