Lulu Rodriguez is Global Programs Lead at Iowa State University’s Seed Science Center. Over the past 20 years, the Center has worked in 79 countries to advance seed industries and systems; establish testing and training facilities; harmonize policy and regulatory phytosanitary measures; evaluate, register and protect plant varieties; certify seeds; and develop national seed laws.

Rodriguez has 20 years of experience in communication education, research, and outreach initiatives in support of national and international development programs. She earned her B.Sc. degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, master’s degree in Communication at Cornell University, and Ph.D. in Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 1993 she joined the faculty of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. During 20 years in the School, she served as director of graduate education and head of the visual communication emphasis of the journalism and mass communication major. She joined the University of Illinois in September 2013 as Director of the Agricultural Communications Program, offered jointly by the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the College of Media. She held the nation’s first endowed faculty appointment in agricultural communications.

Her research products and activities fall under two broad streams: understanding the effects of science and risk communication interventions on public knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, and evaluating and improving media performance in communicating science and risk.