Women & Men Inspiring Success and Excellence

Bio

Heidi Hatfield Edwards, Ph.D. is Professor of Communication, Associate Dean in the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts, and Head of the School of Arts and Communication at the Florida Institute of Technology.

Her scholarly work focuses on communication and social issues, especially mis/disinformation, corporate social responsibility, and the cultural and societal implications of communication regarding health, science, and technology.

Her work has been published in a range of scholarly books and journals, including Journalism & Communication Monographs, Kybernetes, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Mass Communication & Society, and Journal of Communication.

Edwards teaches courses in mass communication and society, communication theory, and communicating science and technology. She is currently working with School of Arts and Communication colleagues on a grant funded by the Educating Character Initiative to infuse character education into Florida Tech’s core curriculum.

Edwards is a Senior Research Fellow with Penn State's Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, and co-editor of the book, Narratives in Public Communication, a collection of studies funded by the Page Center.

She is leading the Page Center’s 2026 call for research in social advocacy in an age of political polarization. In 2025, she and two Florida Tech colleagues were awarded a Page/Johnson Legacy Scholar Grant to complete a project on anthropomorphic hype in public communication about generative AI.

Before joining Florida Tech, Edwards taught public relations at Penn State. As a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, Dr. Edwards worked for the prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards.

She earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. She has nine years of industry experience, working across media platforms and in public relations and marketing.

Edwards is a Florida native. She is married to Ric Edwards. They live in Palm Bay, Florida.