Lulu Rodriguez

Lulu Rodriguez is Global Programs Lead at Iowa State University’s Seed Science Center. She has 20 years of experience in communication education, research, and outreach initiatives in support of national and international communication and development programs. Rodriguez earned her master’s degree in Communication at Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 1993 she joined the faculty of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. During 20 years in the School, she served for eight years as director of graduate education and 10 years as head of the visual communication emphasis of the journalism and mass communication major. She joined the University of Illinois faculty in September 2013 as Director of the Agricultural Communications Program, offered jointly by the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the College of Media. She held the nation’s first endowed faculty appointment in agricultural communications. Her research products and activities fall under two broad streams: understanding the effects of science and risk communication interventions on public knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, and evaluating and improving media performance in communicating science and risk.