Is the message accessible?
Audits of web accessibility, readability, and universal design across health, environmental, and emergency-preparedness websites, so that people with disabilities and low-English-proficiency audiences are not left out.
Public Relations · Leadership · Health Communication
Communication that includes everyone.
Dr. Sakshi Bhati is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations and Leadership at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her research shows how organizations can make strategic and health messages accessible to the people who need them most.
Assistant Professor
Communication Studies, SIU Carbondale
86Scholarly citations
9Publications & chapters
2×CSCA Top Paper Award, 2023 & 2026
2×Outstanding Faculty Award, SIU
About
A strategic communicator focused on access and inclusion.
Sakshi Bhati teaches Public Relations and Leadership in the Communication Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She holds a B.S. (2018) and M.A. (2020) in Communication from Pittsburg State University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership Communication from Kansas State University (2024).
Her work sits where strategic communication meets public good. At Kansas State she helped the Immunize Kansas Coalition build a vaccine-promotion campaign for college students. She also co-produced a process design for ARPA funding facilitation in Reno County, Kansas, and from 2022 to 2023 served as an organizational leadership facilitator for the EveryLife Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Her teaching has earned the Communication Studies Program’s Outstanding Faculty Award in 2025 and 2026, and SIU’s RSO Advisor of the Year award in 2025. She presents at the Central States, National, and International Communication Associations, and reviews for Frontiers in Communication.
Education
- 2024Ph.D., Leadership Communication
Kansas State University - 2020M.A., Communication
Pittsburg State University - 2018B.S., Communication
Pittsburg State University
Experience
- NowAssistant Professor, Public Relations & Leadership
Southern Illinois University Carbondale - 2022–23Organizational Leadership Facilitator
EveryLife Foundation, Washington, D.C.
Certification
Teaching with Cases
Harvard Business Impact Enterprise
Areas of expertise
Teaching
- Pedagogy
- Case study teaching
- Teaching with AI
Strategy & leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Leadership
- Management
- Marketing
- Marketing Strategy
- Sales
- Event Planning
Digital & content
- Social Media
- Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Advertising
- Online Content Creation
- Web Content Writing
- Graphic Design
Research
- Research
- Academic Writing
Research
Three questions drive the work.
Strategic health communication for better health outcomes in minority communities, with practical fixes rather than just diagnosis.
Does it reach the community?
Culturally centered mental health outreach, including research on Indian immigrant women’s perceptions of mental health and what shapes effective interventions.
Is the risk communicated honestly?
Medical tourism communication: media coverage, warning messages, and digital touchpoints that shape how patients understand risk.
Publications
Selected research.
Disabilities and the digital divide: assessing web accessibility, readability, and mobility of popular health websites
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Digital Touchpoints: Investigating Contact Page Accessibility and Visual Authenticity within Medical Tourism Health Websites
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Accessibility Disclosure Statements: Best Practices for Documenting Inclusive and Accessible Web-Based Research Design
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Identifying accessibility improvement opportunities for global environmental communication websites
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Analyzing the message complexity, signal words, and readability of medical tourism warning messages
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Let’s Talk Mental Health: Analysis of Indian Immigrant Women’s Culturally Centered Mental Health Perceptions and Identifying Modifiers in Interventions
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Ready.gov: Who’s ready, really? Examining principles of inclusivity and universal design in emergency management and disaster preparedness public information websites
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Learning from Death: Health Education Considerations for Medical Tourists, Caregiving Companions, and Medical Tourism Providers
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Disabilities and the digital divide: assessing web accessibility, readability, and mobility of popular health websites
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Medical tourism patient mortality: considerations from a 10-year review of global news media representations
Citation metrics from Google Scholar, updated November 2026.
Recognition
Awards & honors.
Outstanding Faculty Award 2×
Recognized by the Communication Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in May 2025 and again in May 2026.
RSO Advisor of the Year
Named Registered Student Organization Advisor of the Year in May 2025.
Top Paper Award, Strategic and Applied Communication Interest Group
Her paper “Minding the Gap: Regulatory Imperatives, Government Public Information, and the U.S. Aging Population,” co-authored with Alicia Mason, Ph.D., and Isaac Lewis, M.A. (Pittsburg State University), received a Top Paper Award at the 2026 CSCA conference.
Top Paper Award, Strategic and Applied Communication Division
Her paper “Ready.gov: Who’s Ready, Really?” was selected as one of the division’s top three. It assessed the accessibility of state-affiliated Ready.gov emergency-preparedness websites and found accessibility failures in most of them, which limits access for persons with disabilities and people with low English proficiency.
Read the K-State news story →“Fostering inclusivity through research and applied practices is what communication is all about.”
Sakshi Bhati, via K-State Media & Communication
Excellence in Research Award in Communication
For scholarship on medical tourism and web accessibility.
Reviewer, Frontiers in Communication
Peer reviewer for the open-access communication journal.
Teaching
Learning PR by doing PR.
She designs courses around real examples, so students practice the writing, strategy, and leadership the profession expects.
Public Relations in Practice
Application of public relations theory and principles through training and practice in the development of public relations writing and production skills including message construction and delivery, verbal, nonverbal, and visual production work and special events components. Satisfies the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement for communication studies majors.
Prerequisite: CMST 281 with a grade of C or better or consent of instructor.
Case Studies in Leadership Communication
Exploration of leadership communication, current leadership trends, existing leadership theories, and contemporary or historic leaders through case-based teaching. Students apply interpersonal, persuasive, and organizational communication theory to real scenarios. Students discuss communication strategies and tactics leaders use to build relationships and achieve goals. Students will discuss strategies for leading diverse teams, building equitable systems, and encouraging inclusion among team members.
Applied Communication-PRSSA
Supervised experience in communication arts. Emphasis on work with the Public Relations Student Society of America.
Press kit
Bio for introductions & media.
Approved short bio for event programs, panel introductions, and press. Copy it as-is.
Dr. Sakshi Bhati is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations and Leadership in the Communication Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her research examines strategic health communication for improved health outcomes among minority communities, with a focus on web accessibility, mental health outreach, and medical tourism. Her work appears in the Journal of Health Communication, Western Journal of Communication, and Journal of Emergency Management and Disaster Communications, and earned Top Paper Awards from the Central States Communication Association in 2023 and 2026. At SIU she is a two-time recipient of the Communication Studies Program’s Outstanding Faculty Award (2025, 2026) and was named RSO Advisor of the Year (2025). She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Communication from Kansas State University.
Contact
Let’s talk.
For speaking invitations, media interviews, research collaboration, or student mentoring and PRSSA.
[email protected]Office
Communication Building, Room 2002P
Communication Studies
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Carbondale, IL 62901