Kristen Farris

Personal: I grew up in a VERY small, rural Texas town called LaBelle. If you search a map, it likely won't show up (it's one of those more cows than people type of towns). One of the only businesses in my hometown is literally referred to as "the cow store" because of its large cow statue on top of the convenient store. I'm married to my college sweetheart, Marc. We have a daughter, named Ivy, who is almost 2 - so, we're getting into tyrant toddler territory over here! :) In my spare time, my husband and I love to travel. Our favorite places have been Spain, Italy, and Thailand, and it's been a blast including our Ivy girl in our more recent adventures! I also love to go to sporting events and to read, but honestly I've not had a ton of time for either since becoming a parent. I completed my undergraduate degree at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas - this is where I met Marc and some of my best friends. More recently, our men's basketball team has had some success during March Madness so some of you may have heard of the Lumberjacks from SFA! I completed my MA at Texas State University in May 2009. This is where I fell in love with teaching students about communication! After we both finished graduate school, Marc and I decided to stay in San Marcos, because we love the river and enjoy living near two large cities where there's plenty of great restaurants to try and unique activities to do. I completed my PhD in communication studies from the University of Texas-Austin in May 2017. Going to UT was always a dream of mine, and I'm still so grateful to have checked that off my bucket list! Hook 'em! Professional: Dr. Kristen Farris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017, where she studied interpersonal communication at the intersections of health and instructional communication. Her interpersonal and health communication scholarship centers on the ways in which individuals use communication to cope with chronic illnesses or life stressors and how interactants' communication influences their psychosocial outcomes. Her interpersonal and instructional communication scholarship focuses on instructor-student communication in the classroom, student adjustment to college, and assessment of student communication competency. Dr. Farris earned the Abbi Prestin Dissertation of the Year Award in 2018 from the Health Communication Divisions of the International and National Communication Associations for her work exploring romantic partners’ supportive communication in the context of arthritic and rheumatic diseases. She has also received 10 top paper and top paper panel awards (in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2018) from the Central States, Eastern, National, and International Communication Associations. Dr. Farris’s research appears in journal outlets such as: Communication Theory, the Journal of Family Communication, Journal of Adolescence, Basic Communication Course Annual, Higher Education, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Dr. Farris is also a passionate and award-winning instructor. She earned the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020 and along with the COMM 1310 (Foundations of Human Communication) teaching team, was awarded with the National Communication Association’s Program of Distinction Award in 2010 and the Program of Excellence Award in 2011. Dr. Farris teaches large lecture sections of COMM 1310 and several other undergraduate courses including: empirical research methods, communication and coping, and health communication. At the graduate level, Dr. Farris teaches courses in quantitative research methods, the dark side of communication, and instructional communication. Finally, Dr. Farris co-leads an Education Abroad trip each summer where graduate and undergraduate students take communication coursework in London and Paris.

Communication, Coping, Education, Relationships, Social Science, Social Support, Training