Leah Omilion-Hodges

Dr. Leah M. Omilion-Hodges is an associate professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. Her research combines her complimentary academic, industry and teaching interests. More specifically, her scholarship focuses on leadership and health communication within the larger context of organizational communication. Her work explores workgroup dynamics within applied settings to examine the influence of leader-member, peer, and team associations on relationship development, status distinctions, and the sharing of resources.

Drawing from her wealth of experience as a professional communicator within the healthcare industry, she also conducts research with palliative care leaders and organizations in an effort to nuance the field’s understanding of tensions, hierarchical concerns, and communication barriers surrounding end of life.

Her work has been featured in venues such as Communication Yearbook, the Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of Leadership Education, Health Communication and Computers in Human Behavior among others. She has also contributed numerous invited articles to encyclopedias and edited books, and is the recipient of several top paper awards.

Omilion-Hodges has also been recognized with a Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching and is a University Distinguished Teaching nominee. Her teaching has also been recognized with a visiting professor distinction from the University of Passau.

Omilion-Hodges has earned several internally-sponsored grants, including an Interdisciplinary Research Initiative Award, Instructional Development Travel Grant, Faculty Research Arts and Creative Actives Award, and a Research Development Award. She is also the recipient of the Outstanding Research Award from Wayne State University and was designated as both a Thomas C. Rumble and King Chavez Parks Future Faculty Fellow.