Lissa Knudsen is a Health Communication PhD candidate. Lissa’s work uses a critical-cultural lens and focuses on health policy efforts to increase breastfeeding rates, media representations of breastfeeding mother-child dyads, and contested space(s) and the breastfeeding-mother.

In 2007, Ms. Knudsen won the National Public Health Association Inaugural Trong Nguyen Memorial Award for Student Leadership in recognition of the policy work she did to get the New Mexico ‘Breastpump Use in the Workplace’ bill signed into law. That same year Lissa also received the University of New Mexico (UNM) Student Volunteer of the Year Award. From 2009-2011 she served as the UNM Graduate & Professional Student President, where she advocated on behalf of graduate students, with an emphasis on efforts that would create space and open doors for students who were also parents. From May 2020 - to March 2021, Lissa served as the News Editor for the New Mexico Daily Lobo. Lissa is now a freelance health care journalist for Source New Mexico and an executive board member of the New Mexico Public Health Association.

Born in San Luis Obispo, CA, Ms. Knudsen received a B.S. degree in health science, and a Masters in Public Health degree, graduating with distinction, from California State University, Northridge in 2005. She currently lives in downtown Albuquerque with her 17-year-old daughter, two dogs, a cat and a small flock of backyard chickens.

Introduction Video

Teaching Philosophy

I view teaching as a collaborative, culturally responsive activity that resists top-down banking models of learning while remaining aware of the need for teacher authority in the classroom. I aim to support students to develop practical problem solving skills and ensure they are skilled in identifying their own and others’ assumptions. To achieve these goals my pedagogy focuses on developing students’ critical thinking and speaking skills, sense of empathy and willingness to push themselves even when they may feel anxious. Effective learning happens through experience and practice. As a result, my critical pedagogy challenges and empowers students to be invested in their education and to show that they have gained the skills necessary to achieve their personal and professional goals.

To foster an understanding of power and how it is maintained throughout society, I ask students to evaluate who benefits from the information they are being taught. I ask them to hone their critical evaluation skills and apply those same critiques to their own work. Discussion and writing prompts also follow active learning protocols, asking students to synthesize course material rather than memorize responses. I teach as an expert and a joint learner to model lifelong learning. Individual and team assignments reflect this philosophy as well. Students regularly share work with classmates, the instructor, and the larger community in presentations and online forums.

A classroom and public pedagogy demanding critical self-reflection necessitates a democratic learning environment, or a space that fosters mutual respect by accommodating mistakes, different learning styles, opinions, and cultures. Acceptance of diversity does not mean that statements are made and accepted at face value. A democratic classroom is not necessarily a comfortable classroom. Rather than ignore controversial or difficult issues, my role as instructor is to help guide the class through struggles. I am specifically committed to fostering discussions about health, class, race, and gender issues. I use a variety of low risk assignments—including reflection papers, teach-backs, self and peer critiques, and service-learning projects — to allow students to hone their voice and gain confidence. I build in opportunities for students to assert their class expectations, have input on course design and provide anonymous mid-term constructive feedback. Thus, by breaking hierarchical teaching models and assuring and fostering a learning environment attentive to the needs of students from a variety of positions and backgrounds, my teaching pedagogy reflects my values, because ‘the model is not the most important thing in teaching, it is the only thing in teaching.’

Teaching Demos