Linda Costigan Lederman, Ph.D.

About Linda C. Lederman

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Linda Costigan Lederman, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Department of Communication and the Center of Alcohol Studies, and founding Director of CHI-the Center for Communication and Health Issues, received her A.B. from Brown University, her M.A. from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. from Rutgers. She currently holds the position of Professor of Health and Human Communication at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, where she specializes in human communication and health issues, with an emphasis on the role of experiential learning in socially situated interactions. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse ($6 million), the U.S. Department of Justice ($400,000), the U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug Free School Program ($425,000, $260,000; $250,000, $98,000), the U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education ($175,000; $269,500), the New Jersey Consortium on Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention and Education (multiple grants equaling $127,000), the Rutgers University Teaching Excellence Center ($5,000; $7,000; $4,800), the Rutgers University Health Services ($10,000), and the NCADD Communities Against Tobacco Coalition ($10,000).

Professor Lederman is the author of 15 books, handbooks, and manuals, 65 book chapters, journal articles, and/or research reports, and has presented more than 195 conference papers and professional seminars. She has also designed/published a variety of communication simulations, including RU SURE, and IMAGINE THAT!, both simulations of college dating and drinking-related behaviors that are in use at more than 400 colleges and universities in the US and Canada. Professor Lederman’s work on alcohol prevention issues and college students has been published in leading scholarly journals, including the Journal of Health Communication, American Journal of College Health, American Behavioral Scientist, Communication Quarterly, Communication Education, Simulation/Gaming, the Journal of College Health, and Communication Studies. Her research on language and prevention, resulted in A Case against Binge Drinking as the Word of Choice, one of the first articles published in communication scholarly journal to argue against terminology created by the Harvard School of Public Health. While the word, binge, still is used on many campuses, as the result of issues raised about its problematic usage to describe college students’ drinking many campuses, led by Rutgers, and scholarly journals, led by the Journal of Alcohol Studies, no longer use the term. Her most recent book, Changing the Culture of College Drinking (Hampton 2004) (with Lea Stewart) is the first communication scholarly book to examine the role of communication in the prevention of dangerous drinking on the college campus. The book was featured in a special Meet the Author session at the 18th Annual National Conference on Alcohol Prevention in Higher Education sponsored by the US Department of Education.

In 2003, Professor Lederman was recognized by Rutgers University with the Presidential Public Service Award and by the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies with the Excellence in Service Award. In previous years Dr. Lederman has received awards for a variety of projects, including the Model Program Award by the U.S. Department of Education, teaching awards from the Western Communication Association, the Rutgers University Teaching Excellence Center, the Eastern Communication Association, the School of Communication and Information Studies, and the Department of Communication at Rutgers University. She is a Center Associate for the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.

Professor Lederman has served as Editor of Communication Quarterly, one of the nation's oldest scholarly journals of communication, and as President of the Eastern Communication Association, the Association for Communication Administration, and the Tri-state Communication Association as well as an officer of the North American Simulation and Gaming Association, the National Communication Association and the Association of Recovery Schools (editor). At Rutgers, Professor Lederman has served two terms as the inaugural Director of an interdisciplinary Masters in Communication and Information Studies Program (MCIS), the first in the nation, and five years as Chair of the Department of Communication.

Contact Information

The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
Arizona State University
PO Box 871205
Tempe, AZ 85287-1205 USA

Telephone: Phone: 480-965-7319      Fax: 480-272-8973