Dr. Thomas Barker

Biography

Thomas Barker is a Professor in the Communication Graduate Program, focusing on Communication Technology, at the University of Alberta within the Faculty of Arts. He has previously served as the Director of Technical Communication at Texas Tech University and held the role of Chair of the President's Strategic Planning Advisory Council, as well as Faculty Advisor for the TTU Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). His research interests center on communication issues in public health, particularly risk communication and community engagement, including his role as a visiting scholar during 2007-2008 studying models of community engagement in the context of risk communication during pandemics. He has contributed to various projects that map and evaluate models of participatory action research in public health and has published extensively on topics including software documentation and information dissemination in the academic context. Thomas teaches graduate courses in leadership communication, emphasizing the importance of understanding public interest through analysis and transforming that understanding into action.

Research Interests

Experience