Courtney Meyers, Ph.D.

Dr. Courtney Meyers' journey began in rural southeast Kansas, where she fondly recalls exploring once-flooded riverbeds for arrowheads with her twin sister surrounded by trees and soybeans near the Ozarks. Inspired by her upbringing as the daughter of English teachers and the granddaughter of farmers, she always seemed to have a knack for writing stories that rivaled her enthusiasm for solving math problems.

Eager to broaden her horizons post-high school, she spent time exploring seven European countries before settling into her undergraduate studies at Kansas State University. During her time at KSU, Meyers found herself in the International Grains Program, building global connections that continued to drive her curiosity for learning. Eventually, her studies lead her to pursue her master's degree at the Univiersity of Arkansas where she completed a marketing internship at a Scottish agricultural institution. She pressed on with her academic pursuits at the University of Florida where she began conducting reserach that aimed to better understand how people process agricultural information. 

Upon receiving her Ph.D., she began her search for career opportunities and discovered an opening in Texas Tech's Department of Agricultural Education and Communications, a program she had admired during her time in academia. Securing an interview, she traveled to the plains of West Texas. While getting ready for her interview, she experienced the local morning news covering a story in agriculture. This news story was confirmation the South Plains offered rich, agricultural territory she wanted to leave on a mark on by using her background to grow the agricultural communications program at Texas Tech. 

Currently, her research focus is in effective message development, examining message attributes like key words, phrasing, design, and how these attributes influence audience attention. Recognizing that misinformation exists, her research also expands into exploring the public's attitudes and perceptions of agricultural topics. Finally, scholarship of teaching and learning is an important pillar in her research as she believes it is crucial to train the next generation of agriculturists through focusing on effective integrations of technologies to leverage what and how students learn. 

Dr. Meyers is a part of several USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant projects including iVisit and Farm to Fashion scholars. iVisit focuses on leveraging virtual reality of agricultural facilities to enhance public perceptions and create agricultural exposure. On the other hand, Farm to Fashion is a project including Texas Tech's College of Human Sciences that strives to help students gain understanding and appreciation for field to textile projects to showcase the moral resilience of sustainability. She also serves as an evaluator on several student facing projects such as Bridge Adventure and designing healthy outdoor environments for childcare centers.