Remembering Vicki Freimuth

Vicki Freimuth, a pioneer in health communications and founding director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication at UGA, died Oct. 20, 2024, at her home outside Cincinnati. She was 80 years old.

Freimuth served as director of communication for the Centers for Disease Control for nearly eight years, after which she joined the faculty at UGA in 2004. She held a joint appointment between Grady College and Communication Studies in Franklin College and developed the Center for Health and Risk Communication, which is currently housed in Grady College.

“I was fortunate to work with Vicki for years, both at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the University of Georgia,” said Glen Nowak, associate dean for research and graduate studies at Grady College. “She was a pioneering leader in the field of health communication in academia, research, and professional practice, and a joy to work with. Vicki will be greatly missed, but we’re fortunate that her foundational work in health communication will guide current and future scholars and practitioners for decades.” 

Freimuth served as dissertation advisor to several doctoral students through her years at UGA, including Karen Hilyard (PhD ’08).

“Vicki was legendary as both a researcher and practitioner and won nearly every award someone could win—just being connected with her has opened numerous doors for me and introduced me to so many people and opportunities,” Hilyard said. “But, in addition to being super smart, Vicki was also a delight to work with.  She was kind and patient and fun – and as a bonus, she never scheduled early morning meetings.” 

Freimuth was known for being a supportive and encouraging colleague, as well.

“As founding director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication, Vicki encouraged her junior colleagues to apply for research funding from the Center,” remembered Bryan Reber, professor emeritus at Grady College.  “Hye Jin Paek, Ruthann Lariscy and I successfully applied for a grant from the Center and conducted health communication research among middle school students in Atlanta.  Vicki also took me under her wing as a partner in some of her own research.  She was an unassuming superstar in scholarship and practice.”

Hilyard continued: “It’s hard to overstate the impact Vicki had on the field of health communication — and what a pioneer she was.”

Freimuth received many accolades for her work over the years, including the prestigious

K. Everett M. Rogers Award from the American Public Health Association which she received in 2011 honoring outstanding contributions to advancing the study and/or practice of public health communication.

In the nomination letter for this award, Claudia Parvanta, at the time from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, cited Freimuth’s extensive contributions to ensuring public health and safety in her job at the CDC.

“Vicki led the CDC into a positioning to capture the top spot in the American consciousness for reliable health information,” Parvanta said in her nomination letter. “This branding effort was the fact that CDC starting speaking directly to the public and this repositioning as the public’s most trusted authority for health information would have significant ramifications in our post-9/11 work. It’s hard to overstate the contribution that Vicki Freimuth made to CDC and all of the public health communication surrounding 9/11, the anthrax attacks, the outbreak of SARS and even West Nile virus. And, it was Vicki Freimuth who kept the coolest head of all during all of this.”

Additionally, Freimuth received an honorary doctorate from Emerson College in 2010 and won a Distinguished Career Award from the American Association of Public Health in 2003, among other accolades.

Freimuth helped to establish the interest sections on health communication within the International Communication Association, National Communication Association and American Public Health Association. She was one of the few women in the industry at the beginning of her career. Hilyard added that many graduate programs in health communication at schools of journalism, communication and public health are modeled on the first one Freimuth started at the University of Maryland, where she was a professor from 1974 to 1996.

Freimuth earned a B.S. from Eastern Illinois University, an M.A. from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. She is the author of “Searching for Health Information,” co-editor of two books on HIV/AIDS and communication, and author of chapters in several major books on health communication.

Even after she officially retired from UGA in 2011, Vicki continued to do research and training until just a couple of years ago. 

Freimuth and her husband, Harold, were known for entertaining friends and colleagues at their farm in Bishop, Georgia.

Reber recalls an exchange of plants from their yards.

“I have a large American Beech tree growing in my yard today that Vicki helped me dig as a sapling from her property on the Apalachee River.  It stands as a constant reminder of the friends Vicki and Harold were to us.”  

Hilyard recalled that Freimuth had a penchant for book clubs and board games and travel and rescue animals and learning new skills

“Vicki was completely laid-back and down-to-earth, and was like a real-life, unpretentious Martha Stewart — but also with a Ph.D. and an international reputation for peer-reviewed research,” Hilyard continued. “She knew every good book, every good movie and TV show, and was always up for any ethnic restaurant, farmers market, or thrift store, or for just hanging out and talking.”

Hilyard said that although she felt like she had won the lottery to work with Freimuth, it was the personal connection that will have a lasting impact.

“Vicki was also so much more in my life: a friend, role model, and mom figure — an amazing human being and an example of how to live your life with exuberance, grace, and work-life balance. She navigated her early career in academia in the 1970s as a single parent yet, she was always calm, even-tempered, and gracious no matter what chaos was happening around her.”

Author: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu