Jacob Sanders

Jacob Sanders is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on organizational communication in community-based health contexts, particularly how HIV/AIDS service organizations support communal coping, resilience, and collective identity formation amid sociopolitical hostility and marginalization. His work is especially concerned with how organizations navigate intersectional difference and facilitate storytelling networks that sustain community support.

Methodologically, Sanders draws on qualitative and interpretive approaches, including interviews, fieldwork, and textual analysis. His research is informed by organizational communication theory and critical perspectives on health, identity, and community. Alongside his research, he teaches undergraduate courses in oral and written communication, organizational communication, and health communication.