Lesa Stern, Ph.D.
Deane Hall 107A
By appointment.
Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication, Research Methods
- Interpersonal Communication (resilience, gossip, human-robot interaction)
- Rhetorical Figures in Advertising (hyperbole and body distortion images)
- Assessment in Higher Education and Non-Profits (program evaluation)
Dr. Stern graduated from UCLA and earned a master’s degree and doctorate in communication from the University of Arizona. She joined the Westmont faculty in 2007 after teaching 13 years at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her areas of expertise and research include interpersonal communication and the uses of images in advertising. Her current interpersonal research projects explore the role of interpersonal communication and its impact on one’s own and others’ resilience. Dr. Stern is also the lead interpersonal communication specialist on a robotics team studying human-robot interaction and adaptation. She has published articles on listening to gossip, one of the first scholarly studies of Facebook, and articles on the effects of rhetorical figures in advertising (the impact of hyperbole and body distortion images in advertising).