Haley Kranstuber Horstman

Haley Kranstuber Horstman is an Associate Professor of Interpersonal and Family Communication at the University of Missouri’s College of Arts & Sciences, serving as Director of International Programs. She holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and specializes in narrative sense-making within family adversity and diversity contexts. Her research focuses on miscarriage communication, adoptive families, intergenerational storytelling in international families, and resilience in post-traumatic environments like apartheid in South Africa and Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Dr. Horstman oversees the Communication and Culture study abroad program in Siena, Italy, and has secured grants from institutions including the National Science Foundation, NIH, and Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for her work in Poland. She has earned over 15 Top Paper Awards and the 2023 Associate Professor of the Year award at MU. Her research bridges narrative theory with practical applications in health communication, identity, and crisis management.

Her grants include studies on open adoption communication privacy, South African apartheid narratives, and pandemic pregnancy storytelling. She advises graduate and undergraduate students on projects ranging from infertility communication to intergenerational trauma. Dr. Horstman’s work is published in top journals like Communication Monographs and Health Communication, and she contributes to public discourse through Psychology Today blogs on body positivity and miscarriage support.