Evelyn Y. Ho

Evelyn Y. Ho is a professor of communication studies, Asian Pacific American studies, and critical diversity 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, Professor Ho's teaching and research focus broadly on the intersections of health, culture, and communication, with a specific focus on the use and cultural meanings of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in marginalized populations. She has led and participated in grant-funded projects examining Chinese American dietary practices and health beliefs and patient education that integrates Chinese medicine and biomedicine. You can find that work at INCguide.org.

Dr. Ho is co-editor of the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication and has previously chaired both the Health Communication Division and the Language and Social Interaction Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). She serves on the editorial boards of Health Communication, PEC Innovations, Journal of International & Intercultural Research, and the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.

• Qualitative research
• Patient education
• Asian American studies

• Health communication
• Cultural communication
• Language and social interaction
• Complementary and integrative health
• Asian Pacific American studies
• Patient health education

• PhD/MA, Communication Studies, University of Iowa
• BA, Speech Communication, University of Washington

• University of San Francisco College of Arts & Sciences Deans Scholar Award, 2022
• University of San Francisco Distinguished Research Award, 2021
• Integrative Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US) Research Innovation Award, 2019
• University of San Francisco Faculty Service-Learning Award, 2012

• Ho, E. Y., Agne, R., Santana, T., Thompson, N., McClendon, G., Ng, E., Merrick, S., Gonzalez, F., Smith, T., Drewke, K., Gutierrez, A., Floyd, G, & Chao, Maria T. (2021, online first). A communication perspective on what patient advisory boards do: Action-Implicative Discourse Analysis and the dilemma of advice. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 
• Ho, E. Y., Bylund, C. L., Wollney, E., Peterson, E. B., Wong, H.-N., & Koenig, C. J. (2021, online first). A systematic review of communication about complementary and integrative health (CIH) in global biomedical settings. Patient Education and Counseling. 
• Ho, E. Y., Thompson-Lastad, A., Lam, R., Zhang, X., Thompson, N., & Chao, M. (2021). Adaptations to acupuncture and pain counseling implementation in a multi-site pragmatic randomized clinical trial. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 27(5), 398-406.
• Ho, E. Y., Leung, G., Chao, M. T., Pritzker, S. E., Hsieh, E., Chi, H.-L., Chan, D., Huang, S., Ruan, Q., & Seligman, H. K. (2020). Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of Integrative Nutritional Counseling Versus Standard Diabetes Self-Management Education for Chinese Americans with Type 2 Diabetes. Health Equity, 4, 410-420. 
• Ho, E. Y., Acquah, J., Chao, C., Leung, G., Ng, D., Chao, M. T., Wang, A., Ku, S., Chen, W., Yu., C. K., Xu, S., Chen, M., & Jih, J. (2018). Heart healthy integrative nutritional counseling (H2INC): Creating a Chinese medicine + Western medicine patient education curriculum for Chinese Americans with heart disease. Patient Education & Counseling, 101, 2202-2208.