Education

B.A., Public Relations and International Affairs, Florida State University
M.S., E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University
Ph.D., Mass Communication; Certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Background

Prior to earning her Ph.D., Dr. Brooke McKeever worked for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She has also done communications work for a stem cell research foundation near Boston, for the Chicago International Film Festival, and for the Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs. She began her career at a public relations agency in Chicago, where she served as an account executive and worked with corporate clients such as California Pizza Kitchen, The Peninsula Hotels, Heinz, and Red Robin Restaurants. She has traveled and volunteered in Central and South America and studied abroad in Italy as an undergraduate.

Research

McKeever studies strategic communication, including public relations with a focus on nonprofit advocacy and fundraising and health communication with a focus on misinformation and content that mobilizes publics to improve public health. She has received awards for her research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the International Communication Association and has presented at other academic and professional conferences including the National Communication Association, the Public Relations Society of America International Conference, and the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing & Media. Her research has been published in numerous academic journals including the Journal of Communication, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Science Communication, the Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review.

Recent Grants

Wilcox, S. (PI), Kaczynski, A., McKeever, B.W., Rudisill, C., Saunders, R., Sharpe, P. (Co-Investigators) USC PRC Center and Core Research Project: National Implementation Study of the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) Program. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (09/30/2019 – 09/29/2024).

Qiao, S. (PI), McKeever, B.W., Olatosi, B., Wilcox, S., Li., X. (Co-Is). Connecting Behavioral Science to COVID-19 Vaccine Demand (CBS-CVD) Network funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the USC PRC (May 2021-May 2022)

Ciccarelli, C., McKeever, B.W. Empathy and the Health Belief Model in the Context of COVID-19. Collaborative Scholar Grant awarded for 2021-2022 by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

McKeever, B.W., McKeever, R., Choi, M. Construction and Validation of New Scales for Advocacy and Activism. Grant awarded for 2019-2020 from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication.

Teaching

McKeever teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in public relations and health communication. She likes to incorporate real-world examples and experiences in class whenever possible and enjoys working with students and nonprofit organizations on service-learning projects. Some of the "clients" her students have helped include the American Red Cross, Curing Kids Cancer, the South Carolina Autism Society, My Carolina Alumni Association, the National MS Society, Palmetto Health Foundation, Special Olympics South Carolina, the South Carolina State Museum, and South Carolina State Parks. She teaches PR Campaigns, PR Principles, Public Relations for Nonprofit Organizations, graduate and undergraduate courses in health communication, and more. She received a Promising Professor Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Educator of the Year Award from SC PRSA.

Recent Publications

Choi, M., McKeever, B.W. (2022). Social media advocacy and gun violence: Applying the engagement model to nonprofit organizations' communication efforts. Public Relations Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102173

McKeever, B.W., Choi, M., Walker, D., McKeever, R. (2022). Gun violence as a public health issue: Frame salience, frame adoption, and implications for communication. Newspaper Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/07395329221090497

Zhang, R., Qiao, S., McKeever, B. W., Olatosi, B., & Li, X. (2022). Listening to Voices from African American Communities in the Southern States about COVID-19 Vaccine Information and Communication: A Qualitative Study. Vaccines, 10(7), 1046. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10071046

McKeever, B.W. (2021). Public relations and public health: The importance of leadership and other lessons learned from “Understanding AIDS” in the 1980s. Public Relations Review. 

Rhodes, M., Sundstrom, B., Ritter, E., McKeever, B.W., McKeever, R. (2021). Preparing for a COVID-19 vaccine: A mixed methods study of vaccine hesitant parents. Journal of Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1871986

Service

Senior Research Fellow, The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication

Advisory Board Member, Certificate of Graduate Study in Health Communication, University of South Carolina

Media & Communication Committee, National Physical Activity Plan and Physical Activity Alliance

Tenure & Promotion Select Committee, School of Journalism and Mass Communications