Staff: Irina A. Iles, PhD, MPH
Irina A. Iles, PhD, MPH
Irina A. Iles, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a Program Director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) of the Behavioral Research Program (BRP). Her research broadly focuses on exploring how scientific understanding of human decision making, particularly in the context of health and health behaviors, can be fostered and integrated with health communication theories and practices to design effective health messages that promote health and health behavior, correct health mis/disinformation, and communicate scientific findings. Dr. Iles is also interested in investigating strategies to better communicate scientific uncertainty to foster trust in public health authorities.
Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Iles served as a social scientist in the Office of Communications, Research and Risk Communication, which is a part of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). At CDER, she engaged in qualitative and quantitative research studies on a variety of topics, including opioids, benzodiazepines and biosimilars, and, most notably, led a multi-phase project investigating optimal communication strategies to correct misinformation about FDA-regulated products during public health emergencies. She completed her post-doctoral training as an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellow in BRP.
Dr. Iles received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park's Department of Communication, with a concentration in health and risk communication, and her M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics. She has a B.A. in communication and public relations and a B.S. in economics, both from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania.
Current and/or past BRP mentors include William Klein, Rebecca Ferrer and Rachel Grana Mayne.
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Iles IA, Gillman AS, O'Connor LE, Ferrer RA, Klein WMP. Understanding responses to different types of conflicting information about cancer prevention. Soc Sci Med 2022 Oct; 311:115292.
- Iles IA, Gillman AS, Ferrer RA, Klein WMP. Self-affirmation inductions to reduce defensive processing of threatening health risk information. Psychol Health 2022 Oct; 37(10):1287-1308.
- Nan X, Iles IA, Yang B, Ma Z. Public Health Messaging during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Lessons from Communication Science. Health Commun 2022 Jan; 37(1):1-19.
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Iles IA, Gillman AS, Platter HN, Ferrer RA, & Klein WMP.
Investigating the Potential of Inoculation Messages and Self-Affirmation in Reducing the Effects of Health Misinformation.
Sci Commun 2021; 43(6):768-804.
- Iles IA, Pearson JL, Lindblom E, Moran MB. "Tobacco and Water": Testing the Health Halo Effect of Natural American Spirit Cigarette Ads and Its Relationship with Perceived Absolute Harm and Use Intentions. Health Commun 2021 Jun; 36(7):804-815.
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