Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Dara Wald, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications. Wald’s research identifies and tests strategies for effective public-facing communication and decision-making in agri-environmental and natural resource contexts. She teaches courses in agricultural communication and journalism, risk communication, and public relations. Wald has received over $69.2 million in research funding, including competitive research awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the USDA, and prestigious foundations. She has published 23 peer-reviewed journal articles, an academic book, and has been an invited speaker at peer institutions and international conferences. Wald is affiliated with the Science Communications Lab at Texas A&M and the Ecology of Bird Loss Project.
Dr. Wald is an associate editor of the Science and Environmental Communication section within Frontiers in Communication, a top open-access journal in her subfield. Dr. Wald was previously the co-organizer of the Science Communication Project and the socio-economic lead for the C-CHANGE Project at Iowa State University. She received the Cassling Innovation Award from Iowa State University in 2019 and was a finalist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. Dr. Wald received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2022.