James Price Dillard (Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1983) is Distinguished Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. He conducts research on the production and effects of persuasive messages. His Goals-Plans-Action model of interpersonal communication has contributed to understanding how individuals create messages designed to change relationships, acquire goods, and shape political opinion. Professor Dillard’s research on the role of emotion in persuasion is often applied to the questions of public health. He is a former Editor of Human Communication Research and co-editor of The Persuasion Handbook (with M. Pfau and L. Shen), a Fellow of the International Communication Association, the recipient of the John E. Hunter Award for Meta-Analysis (twice), and a recipient of the NCA Golden Anniversary Award for article of the year.

Dr. Lijiang Shen received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. He is a professor in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. His primary area of research considers the impact of message features and audience characteristics in persuasive health communication, message processing, and the process of persuasion/resistance to persuasion as well as quantitative research methods in communication.