Assistant Professor, Public Relations
School of Journalism and Mass Communications

Email

Preferred: zongchao.li@sjsu.edu

Education

Ph.D. in Strategic Communication, University of Miami, 2015

Bio

Zongchao Cathy Li, Ph.D. is an associate professor of public relations at San Jose State University. Her research centers on how new media have changed the interactions between organizations and users, between technologies and users, and among network users themselves. She is particularly interested in studying the relationships between emotive and psychological variables and consumer behavioral outcomes. 

Dr. Li’s research has been published in several top refereed journals such as Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Computers in Human Behavior, Internet Research, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Communication Management, among others. She is also the author of several book chapters on new media and public relations measurement.

Dr. Li specializes in research methods, data analytics, social media measurement and evaluations. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on research methodology, social media and web analytics.

Dr. Li was the award recipient for 2016 – 2017 Arthur W. Page Legacy Scholar Grant. She was the co-investigator of several multimillion-dollar grant funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. Her research has won multiple top paper awards at national and international conferences, such as AEJMC, NCA, PRSA, and IPRRC. 

Dr. Li is an advisory board member of the International Public Relations Research Conference and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Public Relations Research, Communication Research Reports, and the Public Relations Journal.