Jon Stemmle

Jon Stemmle is the chair and professor of Strategic Communication, former director of the Health Communication Research Center at the Missouri School of Journalism and a core faculty member of the Master of Public Health Program at MU.

In his role as a professor, Stemmle teaches classes in public relations, health and science communication and integrated marketing campaigns. His primary research interests involve health-related community-based participatory research, tailored health communication and messaging through storytelling and narrative.

Stemmle’s work in the area of strategic health communication has been presented to the CDC, NCI and various health literacy groups around the nation. His co-authored research has been published in a wide array of journals including the Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare and the Journal of Interactive Advertising.

Over the last decade, he led a variety of health communication projects on topics such as health and science literacy, cancer prevention communications and photovoice. These projects were conducted on a variety of levels, from local to international, and totaled more than $30 million. Since stepping down from his director role in the summer 2014, Stemmle now serves the HCRC in an advisory capacity.

His career began in journalism with the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey and continued at newspapers around the country for nearly a decade. Stemmle has been involved with public relations and strategic communication for nearly 20 years.

Stemmle has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Arizona (1997) and undergraduate degrees in history and communications from Virginia Wesleyan College (1993).