Jean Parrella

Ph.D., Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

M.S., Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

B.S., Public Relations, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID

Advanced Research Methods Certificate, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

Agriculture eLearning Development Certificate, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

The goal of Dr. Parrella’s research is to promote positive behavior change in consumers by increasing their adoption of novel, healthy foods produced or processed using agri-food technologies. She works to accomplish this goal by identifying social, psychological, and physical factors that influence consumers’ food choice behaviors; developing and evaluating evidence-based strategic messages based on those factors; investigating effective ways of framing and reframing information; and simulating the conditions of real-world communication environments. She is particularly interested in how point-of-purchase communication influences consumer decision making. Dr. Parrella also investigates effective ways of improving the communication and public outreach skills of stakeholders across agricultural, food, and environmental sciences. Her systems approach to inquiry centers around quantitative research methodologies. 

Parrella, J. A., Leggette, H. R., Lu, P., Wingenbach, G., Baker, M., & Murano, E. (In press). Evaluating factors explaining U.S. consumers’ behavioral intentions toward irradiated ground beef. Foods [Special issue: Risk Perception, Communication and Behavior on Food Safety Issues].

Parrella, J. A., Bush, M. L., Kainer, M. P., & Leggette, H. R. (2023). Exploring the applicability of the science communication research agenda to agricultural communication scholarship. Journal of Applied Communications, 107(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2428

Parrella, J. A., Esquivel, C., Leggette, H. R., & Murphrey, T. P. (2023). Preparing agricultural leaders: An assessment of agricultural students’ perceived importance and development of employability skills. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2023.2179086

Parrella, J. A., Murphrey, T. P., Leggette, H. R., Bates, A., & Esquivel C. (2023). Investigating how secondary agriculture teachers’ characteristics influence their perceived ability to teach students decision-making skills. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2023.2179087

Baker, M., Lu, P., Parrella, J. A., & Leggette, H. R. (2022). Consumer acceptance toward functional food: A scoping review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1217. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031217

Baker, M., Lu, P., Parrella, J. A., & Leggette, H. R. (2022). Investigating the effect of consumers’ knowledge on their acceptance of functional foods: A meta-analysis and systematic review. Foods, 11(8), 1135. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11081135

Parrella, J. A., Koswatta, T. J., Leggette, H. R., Ramasubramanian, S., & Rutherford, T. (2022). Teaching scientists to communicate: Developing science communication training based on scientists’ knowledge and self-reflection. International Journal of Science Education, 12(3), 235–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2068809

Koswatta, T. J., Parrella, J. A., Leggette, H. R., Ramasubramanian, S., & Rutherford, T. (2022). Improving public science communication: A case study of scientists’ needs when communicating beyond the academy. International Journal of Science Education, 12(2), 174–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2055191

Parrella, J. A., Baker, C. N., Leggette, H. R., & Dunsford, D. (2022). Improvisation for agricultural communicators: Investigating the effect of paired role-play discussions on students’ empathy development using a quasi-experiment. Journal of Applied Communications, 6(3), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2444

Baker, N. C., Parrella, J. A., Norris, L. S., Leggette, H. R., & Walther, D. (2022). Learning to improvise, not criticize: Using improvisation techniques to enhance students’ ability to engage in civil discourse about science. Communication Teacher, 36(4), 269–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2021.1988668

• Bednarz Award (2023), Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, Texas A&M University
• Outstanding Doctoral Student in ALEC (2023), Gamma Sigma Delta, Texas A&M University Chapter of the Honor Society of Agriculture
  
• Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Graduate Research (2021), College for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University
  
• First Runner-Up Research Poster (2021), An opportunity or risk? Scientists’ use of social media as avenues for science communication, National Agricultural Communications Symposium
  
• Outstanding Innovative Poster (2020), Detecting bias: Using Hayakawa-Lowry news categories to teach objectivity in   agricultural media writing, National Agricultural Communications Symposium
• Outstanding Innovation in Research Award Recipient (2018), How we treat what we eat: A Q sort examination of consumers’ food animal perceptions, Western Region American Association for Agricultural Education Conference