"Follow your heart and passion.  If you aren’t passionate about what you are doing in life, it becomes only a job.” --Mugur Geana

Mugur Geana, Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication, was drawn to the KU School of Journalism because of its newly reinforced focus on research. Also, Geana was impressed by “the incredible, united group of professionals and academics that work here,” and the vision that Ann Brill, dean, has for the J-School.

Regarding his “previous life” as a physician, Mugur Geana admits that “It is hard to say which one was my first love: medicine or communications.” He is able to pursue both interests to a certain degree through his current research in the health communications field. For Mugur Geana, researching how communication works between doctors and patients and providing innovative means to make health-related information available to patients is just as important as treating ailments.

Finding this balance “was a journey that started five years and 5,000 miles away. Its final stages followed I-70 from Columbia, Mo. to Lawrence, Kan,” Geana said.

After receiving his Medical Doctor degree from the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, Geana received his Ph.D. in Strategic Communications from the University of Missouri, Columbia in May 2006.