Nicki Karimipour, PhD
Associate Director of Communications
SC CTSI Role
In her role at SC CTSI, Dr. Nicki Karimipour establishes and maintains essential relationships with key stakeholders within and outside of the Institute for the purposes of furthering CTSI’s reach, mission statement, and adoption of services among local investigators and nationally. In addition, she handles internal and external communications, oversees marketing efforts, branding, event planning, promotion, and media relations. She also assists investigators with the development of communications plans for maximizing participant recruitment, and works with other SC CTSI core groups to leverage existing recruitment tools and collaboratively develop new tools.
Contact Information
nicki.karimipour@med.usc.edu
323-442-1280
Professional Background
Dr. Karimipour has a Ph.D. in Health Communications from the University of Florida. She also earned her master’s degree from the University of Florida and her undergraduate degrees in English Literature and Art History from Florida State University. Prior to coming to SC CTSI, she worked as the Assistant to the Director of Strategy and Communications at the UF CTSA hub. While at UF, Dr. Karimipour’s research focused on health-related topics including body image and social media, media coverage of sport-related concussions, hematology, tuberculosis, e-cigarette use, eating disorders, and general health behaviors. Her program of research focuses on body image and social media use, as well as CTSA-related communication strategies.
She has
previous professional experience working in journalism, public relations, health-related
strategic communications, and launching a digital health magazine for millennials.
Dr. Karimipour has almost a decade of experience in teaching at the undergraduate level. During her time at UF, she was the recipient of the 2015-2016 Graduate Student Teaching Award in which she was judged against all graduate-level instructors across all departments at the university. Previously, she served as part-time faculty at California State University, Los Angeles in the Department of Public Health where she taught undergraduates and graduate students. Currently, she teaches part-time at her alma mater, the University of Florida, where she educates the next generation of communications professionals at the graduate level.
Interests
Music, fitness, art history, crafting