S. Senyo Ofori-Parku joined the SOJC from the University of Alabama, where he taught consumer insights and strategy. His research examines sociocultural cognition and sense-making as it relates to environmental health risk communication. He also studies corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and consumer behavior pertaining to “green” brands and products in national and international contexts. His work has appeared in journals such as Public Relations Review; Journalism & Mass Communication Educator; Public Understanding of Science; Journal of Research for Consumers; Risk & Society; Science Communication; BMC: Public Health; Journal of Media Ethics; Health Communication; Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies; and Media, Culture, & Society. He has earned top paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the International Communication Association.

Prior to his doctoral work, Ofori-Parku was a full-time lecturer (an equivalent of assistant professor) in the Department of Communication Studies at the Christian Service University College in Ghana. He also brings to the SOJC a professional portfolio that spans three international integrated marketing communication firms—including Universal McCann Ghana—as a director of research and planning, copywriter, and communication consultant. He has led major World Bank–sponsored projects and worked for clients such as Nestlé and African telecommunications industry leader MTN.

• Ph.D., Communication & Society, University of Oregon
• M.Phil., Communication Studies, University of Ghana
• B.A., Sociology and Geography, University of Cape Coast

• Ofori-Parku, S. S. & Koomson, P. (2023). Corporate sustainability as a hegemonic discourse of Globalization: Nomination, predication, and perspectivization strategies in Tullow Oil’s communication. Public Relations Review, 49(1), 102275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102275
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2022). “Because of how I was raised, you buy organic:” A discursive psychology of how consumers make sense of organic foods beyond the reason-intuition distinction.” Journal of International Food and Agribusiness Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1080/08974438.2022.2139787
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. & Park, S-E. I (2022). I (don’t) want to consume counterfeit medicines: exploratory study on the antecedents of consumer attitudes toward counterfeit medicines. BMC: Public Health, 22, 1094. Doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13529-7
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2022). Fighting the global counterfeit medicines challenge: A consumer-facing communication strategy in the US is an imperative. Journal of Global Health, 12. Doi: 10.7189/jogh.12.03018
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2021). When public and business interests collide: an integrated approach to the altruism-instrumentalism tension and corporate social responsibility theory. Journal of Media Ethics, 36(1), 2-19. Doi: 10.1080/23736992.2020.1857254
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2020). Fifty years after surgeon general’s report: worldviews, cultural cognition and cigarette smoking risk perceptions in the U.S. Health, Risk & Society, 22(2), 156-176. Doi: 10.1080/13698575.2020.1769566 
• Thompson, E. E. & Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2020). Advocacy and mobilizing for health policy change: Ghanaian news media’s framing of a prescription opioid crisis. Health Communication, 1-12.  Doi:10.1080/10410236.2020.1808403
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. & Botwe, K. (2020). “This is (not) journalism”: corruption, subterfuge, and metajournalistic discourses on undercover journalism in Ghana. Journalism Studies, 21(3), 1-18. Doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2019.1664928
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. & Moscato, D. (2018). Hashtag activism as a form of political action: a qualitative analysis of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in Nigerian, U.K., and U.S. press. International Journal of Communication, 12, 23.
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2018). Tacit knowledge and risk perceptions: Tullow Oil and lay publics in Ghana’s offshore oil region. Public Understanding of Science, 27(2), 197-213. Doi: 10.1177/0963662516685488
• Sheehan, K. & Ofori-Parku, S. (2016). chemical (free) reactions: exploring colloquial understanding of the term “chemical free” and subsequent consumer attitudes. Journal of Research for Consumers, (30), 9.
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2016). “Whale deaths” are unnatural: a local NGO’s framing of offshore oil production risks in Ghana. Science Communication, 38(6), 1-29.
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. & Steeves, H.L. (2016). Discovery channel’s Jungle Gold in Ghana: hegemonic globalization sparks resistance and policy action. Media, Culture, & Society, 38(2), 248-264. Doi: 10.1080/17447143.2015.1050030
• Ofori-Parku, S.S. (2014). Reality effect or media effect? Television’s molding of the environmental sanitation agenda in Ghana. African Journalism Studies, 35(2), 59-76. Doi: 10.1080/02560054.2014.919944

• 2016: Top Professional Freedom & Responsibility Paper Award, Advertising Division, AEJMC
• 2015: Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, SOJC, University of Oregon
• 2015: Lorry I. Lokey Dissertation Award, SOJC, University of Oregon
• 2014: Top Paper Award, Global Communication and Social Change Division, ICA
• 2014: Public Impact Award, Graduate School, University of Oregon
• 2014: Kenneth S. Ghent Scholarship, International Affairs, University of Oregon
• 2011: Promising Scholar Award, Graduate School, University of Oregon
• 2009: University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana

• Advertising, Consumer Insights, and Strategy
• Environmental Health Risk Communication
• Green Consumer Behavior
• Corporate Sustainability
• Social Construction of Risks