George Mason University Ph.D
Salem College
Mollie Virginia Rose is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Social Sciences & Health Policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is a member of the Cancer Prevention & Control Program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Rose uses qualitative, mixed-methods, and community-engaged designs to examine how interactions among patients, providers, family, and close relational partners shape uncertainty management, medical decision-making, coping and resilience, health behavior, and psychological well-being. Narrative is at the heart of her work. Dr. Rose studies how people co-create, make sense of, and live stories about health and illness across the lifespan. Her research encompasses both narrative medicine and narrative health, examining stories within clinical care and in everyday life, and draws on the neuroscience of storytelling. Building on this foundation, she also explores embodied narratives, or how stories are expressed through the body, including physical movement as a vehicle for health and vitality. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and the Neuro-Oncology Program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Rose is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Bioethics, Health & Society and the Interpreting and Translation Studies Program (MA in Intercultural Services in Healthcare) at Wake Forest University. She serves on the steering committee of the Humanities Institute’s Story, Health, & Healing Initiative and directs the Department of Communication’s Health, Environmental, and Risk Communication Concentration.