Emily Scheinfeld is currently an associate professor of Communication at Kennesaw State University. She received her PhD in Interpersonal Communication from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests center on how adult children and their parents communicate about challenging or difficult health issues, including end of life, genetic testing, alcohol and drugs, the choice to be a donor. She is interested in examining how familial health communication differs from everyday family communication and the process of disclosure when attempting to seek out social support during these challenging health crises, and how that may impact stress and coping. She has presented at various regional, national, and international conferences and been published in Health Communication, Journal of Social & Personal Relationships, Journal of Death & Dying, Health Behavior & Policy Review, American Journal of Health Behavior, Communication Yearbook, Social Media + Society, and American Journal of Infection Control. 

In addition to exploring the Relational Turbulence Theory, she is currently working with several colleagues nationwide, and two first years at Kennesaw State on the impact of end of life and final conversations on survivors' bereavement and coping behaviors - the experience of a good death, as well as the well-being of survivors. Recently, she wrapped up the exploration of the COVID-19 pandemic and how people coped with loss of everyday things, feeling guilty for experiencing grief over those losses, conflict with families over the pandemic (e.g., politics, masks, vaccines, racial unrest), and how people experienced and managed grief over the death of a loved one when their normal mourning rituals were stripped from them. Emily is also examining how the use of social media has helped people both feel connected during isolation but also impacted our health behaviors, mental health, interpersonal relationships, and experience of FoMO (i.e., fear of missing out). 

She truly believes that this research trajectory came out of more than just interest. But rather, she hopes that this work can transform healthcare practically.