Who we are

Professor Dr. L. Suzanne Suggs, PhD, MSc, BBA, CHES is a Full Professor of Social Marketing at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano Switzerland where she leads the BeCHANGE research group in the Institute of Communication and Public Policy (ICPP). She is Vice-President of the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), Chair of the SSPH+ Lugano Summer School in Public Health Policy, Economics and Management, and a Visiting Reader at Imperial College London, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine. She is co-speaker of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences Expert Group on Science Communication and a Certified Health Education Specialist. In 2020, she was acknowledged for both her scientific and teaching excellence. In March 2020, she joined the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force as a member of the Public Health expert group and soon became co-chair of this group. She remained a member of the Science Task Force for the duration of its two-year mandate and continues to lead the Science Exchange meetings among scientists in Switzerland. In April 2020, she was awarded the Award for Best Teaching at USI, becoming the first woman to receive this honor.

Her research focuses on health communication, determinants of health behaviours, and strategies to modify health related behaviors, concentrating mainly on vaccination acceptance and vaccine hesitancy, eating behaviors, and physical activity, although she has worked on numerous health and medicine topics over her more than two decades of work in and with industry, government, NGOs, and academia.

She is frequently asked to advise governments and public institutions on communication and behavior, such as the Swiss government on its COVID-19 policy actions and its National Immunization Strategy. In addition to her teaching at USI, she provides keynotes and courses on health science communication and social marketing, including in the 2023 EPFL Summer School on “Bridging the Gap” Science and Policy – How to bridge the gap?”.

Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor of Health Communication at Emerson College and Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Family Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.

She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, major in Marketing, at University of North Texas, a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Health Studies from Texas Woman´s University. She was a post-doctoral research fellow at McMaster University, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, in Ontario, Canada and held positions in several for-profit health companies.

Note that the list of publications linked on this page is not up to date.

Prof. Suggs can be reached out via email suzanne.suggs(at)usi.ch

Jeanne Send is a Doctoral student and Program Coordinator for the Master’s in Health Communication at USI. She has a background in Multilingual Communication (BA) and is a graduate of the Master’s in Communication, Management, and Health (MSc) at USI. Her research focuses on developing a model for health communication education and training tailored to the European context, with applications in social marketing. She has professional experience in the humanitarian sector and a strong interest in health communication, behavior change, social marketing, and planetary health.

Ms. Jeanne Send can be reached out via email jeanne.zoe.send (at) usi.ch