Kristiania University of Applied Sciences WHO Collaborating Center on RCCE-IM

Audra Diers-Lawson

“For every complex problem, there’s a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong”

H. L. Mencken

About

Audra Diers-Lawson (PhD, 2006 University of Texas-Austin) is a Professor of Risk and Crisis Communication and the Director of the new WHO-Europe Collaboration Center for Risk Communication, Community Engagement, and Infodemic Management (RCCE-IM) in health emergencies housed in the School of Communication, Leadership, and Marketing at Kristiania University of Applied Technology. It is the first WHO collaboration center for RCCE-IM in the world.

With teaching and research experience in five countries and with more than 35 scientific publications including a monograph, and edited volumes in the last five to six years alone, experience serving as a journal editor and reviewer, and holding leadership positions with the ECREA and ICRCA, Diers-Lawson is a global leader in risk and crisis communication. Her research focuses on connections between risk, crisis, stakeholders and organizations.

Diers-Lawson is passionate about bridging academic and practitioner communities to translate research to practice. She regularly participates as a keynote speaker in online and face-to-face events with communication experts and policy makers from across different industries. For example, she has participated in workshops to share, evaluate, and develop best practices in risk communication, community engagement, and infodemic management (RCCE-IM) with practitioners in the Balkans and Central Asia. She also served as the content expert in risk communication at a joint evaluation exercise in Kosovo.

Research

  • Diers-Lawson, A., Sellnow, D., & Sellnow, T. (forthcoming – 2026). Risk and crisis communication in an evolving global environment: A mindful convergence of research and practice. Routledge.
  • Diers-Lawson, A. & Björck, A. (forthcoming – 2026, Eds.). Research Handbook on the Management of Risk and Crisis Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., Schwarz, A., Meißner, F., & Ravazzani, S. (2024, Eds). Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe: Towards Integrating Theory and Practice in Unstable and Turbulent Times. Routledge, New York.
  • Croucher, S. M., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2023, Eds). Pandemic Communication. Routledge, New York.
  • Diers-Lawson, A. (2020). Crisis Communication: Managing Stakeholder Relationships. Routledge, London.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., Hasselström, A. E., Omondi, G., Jacobsen, R. A. (2025 – in print). Science, social media, and skepticism: Unpacking vaccine attitudes in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. In T. Tufte, V. Pavarala, & E. Govender (Eds.). The Handbook of Health Communication in the Global South. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., (2025). Aligning the Field: Embracing the Interdisciplinary, Conceptually Divergent, and Methodological Diverse Reality of Good Research in Risk and Crisis Communication. In A. Schwarz, M. Seeger, & S. Kim (Eds.). The Handbook of International Risk and Crisis Communication Research II. (pp. 597-614). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Duncan, B., & Diers-Lawson, A., (2025). Preparing for International and Cross-Cultural Crises: The Challenges of Research in Action, Competing Voices, Inclusivity, and the Interplay of Responsibility in Global Organizations. In A. Schwarz, M. Seeger, & S. Kim (Eds.). The Handbook of International Risk and Crisis Communication Research II. (pp. 656-675). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). Translating Research to Practice: Identifying Best Practice in Pandemic Communication. In A. Diers-Lawson, A. Schwarz, F., Meißner, & S. Ravazzani (Eds.). Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe: Towards Integrating Theory and Practice in Unstable and Turbulent Times. Routledge, New York.
  • Ravazzani, S., Meißner, F., Schwarz, A., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). Introduction to risk and crisis communication in Europe. In A. Diers-Lawson, A. Schwarz, F., Meißner, & S. Ravazzani (Eds.). Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe: Towards Integrating Theory and Practice in Unstable and Turbulent Times. Routledge, New York.
  • Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). Denigrated, delegitimized, and erased: Prejudice against Scots in the UK. In S. Croucher & E. Nshom (Eds.). Handbook of Communication and Prejudice Research. Routledge.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., & Omondi, G. (2024). Ripples, Waves, and Riptides: Reconceptualizing Wicked, Novel, and Ongoing Crises as Prolonged Crises. In B. Liu & A. Mehta (Eds.). Handbook of Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Communication. Routledge.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., (2024). It’s complicated….Exploring vaccination attitudes and the vaccination infodemic in the UK throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In T. Sellnow and D. Sellnow (Eds.), Handbook of Communicating Safety and Risk. (pp. 551-584). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110752427-029
  • Diers-Lawson, A., & Fredheim, N.A.G. (2024). Designing Strategic Communication Messages for Health in a High Trust Society: Analyzing the Factors Behind Vaccine Confidence in Norway. In J. Falkheimer, S. Alghasi, E. C. Vanvik, & J. Barland (Eds.). Contemporary Perspectives on Strategic Communication. (pp. 37-64). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
  • Monehin, D., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). A Model of Pragmatic Optimism for More Effective Crisis Leadership. In C. Harrison (Ed.). Leadership During a Crisis: A Focus on Leadership Development. (pp. 46-68). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003344629-4
  • Larssen, J.M., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2025 – in print). Exposing the gaps in Nordic exceptionalism on LGBTQ+ inclusion: Evaluating the arena, strategic communication, and dialogue with diverse LGBTQ+ communities. Corporate Communications: An International Journal.
  • Schwarz, A., Sellnow, D.D., Diers-Lawson, A., Sellnow, T.D. (2025). The crisis response to the Turkiye Syria earthquakes in 2023: Instructional emergency risk communication by the government, the national disaster management agency, and NGOs via press releases and microblogs. Under revise and resubmit at International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
  • Omondi, G., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2025 – in press). Visual frames of resilience: Crisis history’s influence in the visual representation of post-crisis Somalia. Journal of African Media Studies.
  • Diers-Lawson, A., & Lawson, S.J. (2024). Hallucination or vision? Establishing reliability and validity of AI-based qualitative analysis of the unified model of activism in the Scottish independence Twitter debate. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-08-2024-0139
  • Zeng, C., Kelly, S., Goke, R., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). Employee voice as a means to facilitate organizational safety and crisis preparedness. Communication Quarterly, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2024.2344760
  • Schwarz, A., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2024). Mediated crises and strategic crisis communication in the third sector: A content analysis of crisis reporting in six countries. Corporate Communication: An International Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-08-2023-0117

Diers-Lawson’s articles on RCCE-IM

Contact:

Audra.Diers-Lawson@kristiania.no

+47 412 13 467