Faculty Profiles

Ny'Nika T. McFadden earned her PhD in Health Education and Promotion and MA in Communication Studies from The University of Alabama. She received her BS in Psychology from Troy University.

Dr. McFadden is currently an Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Department of Health and Human Performance and a Faculty Fellow with the Translational Health Research Center at Texas State University. She is a public health and health communication scholar who has an interest in chronic disease prevention, chronic disease self-management, patient education, patient engagement, patient-provider communication, and diabetes technology. Her research seeks to primarily provide support for individuals living with Prediabetes, LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults), Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, and Gestational Diabetes. Dr. McFadden’s research focuses on exploring healthcare service delivery experiences related to coordination of care from pediatric to adult care, inpatient and outpatient procedures, and when receiving care from multiple specialists. Also, her research focuses on supporting the diabetes community by increasing their self-efficacy communicating independently with providers and creating digital health interventions and other forms of patient education materials to improve their coordination of care and disease and symptom management behaviors related to nutrition, physical activity, and diabetes distress.

She has published in journals such as The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care, American Journal of Health Promotion, and the American Journal of Health Education. Additionally, she has presented at conferences such as the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES), American Public Health Association (APHA), Behavioral Research in Diabetes Group Exchange (BRIDGE), International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD), Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC), National Communication Association (NCA), National Institute of Health (NIH) – National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK): Network of Minority Health Research Investigators (NMRI), Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), and the Texas Society for Public Health Education (TSOPHE).