Dr. Terri Hernandez

Overview

Summary:

Dr. Terri N. Hernandez is an Associate Professor of Public Relations in the Department of Communication, Media & Theatre at Mississippi State University, where she also serves as the Public Relations Concentration Coordinator. Her research explores the intersections of social and digital media, intergroup and intragroup relations, and consumer behavior, with a focus on organization–public relationships, branding, and strategic communication. She has years of experience working with social media datasets, applying both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Further, her scholarship spans both theoretical and applied domains, integrating insights from the social sciences with professional practice, such as user experience design for websites and other digital applications. Her collaborative work with NSF and MSU’s SSRC has expanded her expertise into large-scale data analytics, machine learning, and interdisciplinary research infrastructure. In particular, her recent NSF-funded projects involve building data repositories and developing methods to analyze social media data, addressing challenges such as restricted access to platforms like X (formerly Twitter). By creating accessible research tools, she aims to support scholars in examining critical social phenomena, including the spread of misinformation and public sentiment during crises. Dr. Hernandez’s work has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Consumer Marketing, Social Media and Society, and Computers & Human Behavior. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and her creative scholarship has earned more than 30 professional awards from PR associations, including SPRF and PRAM.

Education:

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Communication, Texas Tech University, 2018
• Master of Arts (M.A.), Communication, California State University-Fullerton, 2014
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Communication, Vanguard University, 2012

Research interests:

Strategic Communication; Branding; Consumer Behavior; Inter/Intragroup Relations; Crisis Communication; Social Media & Digital Media; Gender/Minority Studies; Social Identity; Self-Categorization