LaKesha Anderson

Dr. LaKesha N. Anderson is Associate Professor of Health Professions Education, Medicine, and Family Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Anderson serves the department as the Admissions Chair and the SOM as Vice-Chair of the Faculty Senate Education Committee. Previously, she served the SOM's Community and Educational Culture Committee as Vice-Chair of the Recruitment, Retention, and Support Support Subcommittee. 

Dr. Anderson is a trained health communcation scientist and is one of the first US PhD graduates in health communication. She completed her PhD at one of the earliest founded health communication departments in the nation, led by the "father of health communication," Dr. Gary Kreps, a former director of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Anderson's research explores the intersections of communication and medicine with specific interests in message development and health behavior change. She explores both clinician and patient education, medical knowledge acquisition, and professional development. Her research has been published in leading journals including JAMA, Family Medicine, and Journal of Health Communication. She has published several book chapters and presented her work locally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Anderson's work was recognized with the HPE Program of Research Award for Research Excellence in 2025. She is Associate Editor at Family Medicine and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

At USU, Dr. Anderson teaches courses in advanced qualitative methods, rhetoric and academic writing, philosophies of science, and reflective practice. Since 2015, she has also taught courses in health communication, risk and crisis communication, and research methods in Johns Hopkins University's Advanced Academic Program in Communication. She is a recipient of the JHU Communication Program’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Prior to USU, she served as Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia and Educational Researcher in MCG’s Educational Innovation Institute. Other roles have included Director of Academic and Professional Affairs at the National Communication Association, where she oversaw national-level education and research programs and intiaitives and Assistant Professor of Communication at Indiana State University where she also served as Affiliate Faculty in the Genomics Advocacy Center.

With a passion for administration and service, Dr. Anderson has shown her ability to lead others through complex work. She directed a large undergraduate advising program at George Mason University in which she personally advised nearly 1,000 students per academic term, conducted all undergradaute orientations, and served as the liaison to various deans as well as the veterans affairs, admissions, registrar, financial aid, and athetics offices. At Indiana State University, she served as the Faculty Council Chairperson, which is an advisory to the Dean. There she led CAS faculty through program and department closures, adjunct voting rights dicussions and implementation, and the adjudication of numerous faculty greivances. She also served on the Strategic Planning Task Force, Administrative and Faculty Affairs Committee, Faculty Affairs Committee, and Curriculum Committee, among others. She was also on the Advisory Council for the Center for Health, Wellness, and Life Enrichment, a grant-funded center that addresses the needs of medically underserved areas of Indiana and provides students with interprofessional education opportunities.

Anderson earned her PhD in Communication, with a specialization in Health and Strategic Communication, from George Mason University. She has a certification in grant writing from The Grantsmanship Center, a certficate in Instructional Methods in HPE from University of Michigan, and is a certfied Postpartum Doula through BEST Doula, Inc. 

Intersections of communication, health, and medicine with specific interests in message development and health behavior change; clinician and patient education; medical knowledge acquisition; and professional development.