The College of New Jersey in Ewing launched a new student specialization in health and wellness communication for the spring 2022 semester, the college announced Feb. 16.

The new concentration, which officials said has been in the works for 24 years, is available to undergraduates enrolled full time.

Study topics will cover global health and risk communication campaigns and international communication; U.S. health and risk communication; interpersonal health and lifespan courses; emerging media technology; and more.

In addition to teaching these areas of study, professors also will mentor student-faculty research projects.

“I am delighted that the health and wellness communication strength long manifest in successful student-faculty collaboration has been formally recognized in an official Health and Wellness Communication specialization,” Lorna Johnson-Frizell, dean of the School of Arts and Communication and a professor of communication studies, said in a prepared statement. “Our new HWC concentration is clearly aligned with national aging trends, increased federal health care spending, and occupational opportunities in New Jersey’s flourishing pharmaceutical industries, benefiting students, faculty and the state’s entire population.”

Additional faculty members teaching the new concentration include professor John Pollock, HWC founder; associate professor Yifeng Hu; assistant professor Yachao Li; department chair and associate professor Keli Fazio; and assistant professor Eugene Cho.

TCNJ’s Department of Communication Studies is one of the top-ranked communications schools in New Jersey, according to College Factual, and received the 2013 National Communication Association Rex Mix Program of Excellence Award as the nation’s best undergraduate communication studies department.