Brandon Larranaga

Introduction 

Brandon is an agricultural communications graduate assistant studying under Dr. Gibson with a research and teaching appointment. Before coming to Texas Tech, Brandon received his B.S. in agricultural communications and journalism as well as mass communications from New Mexico State University in May of 2023.

During his time in school, Brandon has served the agriculture industry in various roles such as a communications assistant at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and serving two years as a New Mexico FFA State Officer from 2019 to 2021.

Research 

Brandon’s research interests are in natural resource conservation and communication strategies related to wildlife and wildfire risk. In particular, he uses tools such as communication audits and analyses to study wildlife and wildfire risk communication to explore what communication efforts already exists and their effectiveness.  

For his upcoming thesis, he plans to analyze communication efforts before and after a 2022 wildfire in New Mexico. His research will include a communications audit and interviews with professionals in the field to assess changes in communication strategies and their impact.  

Why Agricultural Communications? 

“I always knew I wanted to be a storyteller of some kind. I didn’t necessarily know in what form or how to translate that into a job but felt that as my calling. As I foster my relationships within agricultural communication, I realize the ability to take the skills I am learning and translating them into an applied setting is impactful in an industry that needs to have its story told.”