Abby Prestin , PhD

Current Fellow
Fellow - Cancer Research Training Award Fellow
Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB)
Behavioral Research Program (BRP)
prestinal@mail.nih.gov
301-451-9006

Dr. Abby Prestin is a Cancer Research Training Award (CRTA) Fellow in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) within the Behavioral Research Program (BRP). Abby's research interests are unified under the central theme of understanding the relationship between emotion and health. Within this general area, her work more specifically explores the interplay between cognition and emotion in understanding the effects of mediated health messages, issues of stress and coping during cancer survivorship, and the utilization of emotion theory to inform the design of mediated health promotion messages and media-based positive psychology interventions. She is also fascinated by the ways in which social media and new technologies are changing the media landscape, and the implications that these changes have for the enhancement of health communication efforts. Abby graduated from New York University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. She received her Master of Arts degree in Communication in 2008 from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and her thesis was awarded the 2009 ICA/NCA Health Communication Division Thesis of the Year Award. Abby received her Doctorate degree in Communication in 2011 from UCSB Her dissertation tested the capacity of different genres of media content to evoke discrete positive emotional experiences (e.g., amusement, hope) that differentially facilitate stress reduction and engagement in cognitive and behavioral coping strategies.

Current and past BRP mentors include Kelly Blake and Wen-Ying Chou.