Evelyn Y. Ho

Evelyn Y. Ho is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of San Francisco. Beginning with an understanding that communication is a cultural activity and that health care systems and beliefs are profoundly cultural, Dr. Ho's teaching and research focus broadly on the intersections of health, culture and communication. Health care in the United States is increasingly confronted with a variety of domestic and international-based alternatives to Western biomedicine and her research studies the discursive construction of holistic (or alternative) medicine especially in relationship to biomedicine.

Recent research has focused on patient education for talking about complementary and alternative medicine with biomedical practitioners and the use of Chinese medicine among Chinese Americans and Type 2 Diabetes. Previous research has examined public health acupuncture clinics in Seattle and in San Francisco where the focus was on the use of acupuncture and massage therapy use for HIV-related neuropathy. Her research has been published in Research on Language and Social Interaction, Health Communication, Diabetes Educator, Patient Education and Counseling,Qualitative Health Research, and elsewhere.

At USF Dr. Ho teaches courses in Communication and Culture, Ethnography of Communication, Health Communication, Holistic Medicine, and Asian American Studies. She also serves as faculty co-advisor to Lambda Pi Eta, the Communication Honor Society and the Asian Pacific American Student Coalition (APASC).

Evelyn Ho is the current Chair of the Language and Social Interaction Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) and previous Chair of the Language and Social Interaction Division of the Western States Communication Association.