L. Suzanne Suggs, Ph.D., MS., CHES is a Senior Assistant Professor of Social Marketing and Head of the BeCHANGE Research Group in the Institute of Public Communication, Faculty of Communication Sciences at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland. She also is Co-President of Health-X-Change.
Suzanne's principal research examines the use of communication technologies and communication strategies to improve health status, health outcomes, and facilitate health behavior and social change.
She has lead several successful social marketing projects, including "Family, Physical Activity and Nutrition (FAN)" in Switzerland and "I'm Allergic to Stupid Decisions (IA2SD)" in the United States; both heavily relied on end user involvement in the development of the programs. In addition to numerous social marketing activities, she recently served as consultant to Québec en Forme for the social media component of their upcoming physical activity promotion campaign for tweens. She has published several social marketing papers, including the development process of IA2SD, systematic reviews of the use of theory in social marketing and the marketing mix, and social marketing efforts in German speaking countries.
She teaches the masters level social marketing course at USI and prior to coming to Europe in 2007, she taught social marketing at Emerson College in Boston. She serves on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives and the Journal of Communication Technology and Human Behaviors. She is a co-founder of the European Social Marketing and Social Change Association and serves on the communication committee for the International Social Marketing Association (ISMA).