Dara Wald

Dr. Dara M. Wald is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications at Texas A&M University. Wald’s research explores the drivers of conflict and barriers to effective communication in natural resource contexts. She teaches courses in agricultural communication and journalism (AGCJ), 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 at Virginia Tech. She is an associate editor of the Science and Environmental Communication section within Frontiers in Communication, a top open-access journal in her subfield. 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. Wald received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2022.