Doug Evans, PhD

Doug Evans recently became the director of the Public Health Communication & Marketing program. He is also a Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health and in the Department of Global Health.

• Phone: 202-416-0496
• Fax: 202-416-0433
• Email: sphwde@gwumc.edu

Professor Evans' has 17 years of experience in prevention research, health promotion and disease prevention program evaluation, and social marketing and communications research. He has designed many large-scale evaluations and intervention research studies and has extensive experience evaluating behavior change and public education intervention programs designed to communicate science-based information to diverse audiences. He has published extensively on media influences on health risk behavior and worked a lot on public health subject areas of tobacco and cancer control; nutrition, physical activity, and obesity; diabetes; asthma; HIV/STDs; and reproductive health.

Education

Ph. D., Cognitive Science, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1991
M.A., Cognitive Science, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1988
B.A., Physchology/Philosophy, Reed College, Portland, OR, 1984

Research

Dr. Evans currently leads an evaluation of the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children's (CLOCC) 5-4-3-2-1 Go! social marketing initiative, which is aimed at reducing community obesity health risks. He also leads an evaluation of the Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC), a mass media campaign to promote parent-child communication about sexual activity among parents of pre-teen and teenage children.

Community Service

Dr. Evans serves a member of the Secretary of Health and Human Service's National Advisory Committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (Healthy People 2020). He is also an active peer reviewer and serves on editorial boards for health communication and social marketing journals.

Departments

• Prevention and Community Health
• Global Health

Professional Associations

• American Evaluation Association
• American Psychological Association
• American Public Health Association
• International Communication Association
• Society of Behavioral Medicine
• Society for Prevention Research

Publications

• Evans, W.D., Davis, K.C. (Forthcoming). "Social Marketing Research with New Media: Case Study of the Parents Speak Up National Campaign Evaluation." Cases in Public Health Communication and Marketing.
• Finkelstein, E., Brown, D., and Evans, W.D. (2008). "Do Obese Persons Underestimate Their Personal Health Risks." American Journal of Health Behavior 32(5): 508-516.
• Evans, W.D. (2008). "Social Marketing and Children's Media Use." Future of Children: Children, Media, and Technology 18(1), 41-59.
• Evans, W.D., Silber-Ashley, O., and Gard, O. (2007). "Social Marketing as a Strategy to Reduce Unintended Adolescent Pregnancy." Open Journal of Communication 1: 1-8.
• Evans, W.D., Renaud, J., Blitstein, J., Hersey, J. Connors, S., Schieber, B., and Willett, J. (2007). "Prevention Effects of an Anti-Tobacco Brand on Adolescent Smoking Initiation." Social Marketing Quarterly 13(2): 19-38.
• Evans, W.D. "How Social Marketing Works in Health Care." British Medical Journal 322:1207-1210.