She teaches in the nursing doctoral program. Dr. Ellington has an interdisciplinary program of research in family-patient-provider communication. She has studied interpersonal health communication in a range of health care contexts and among diverse groups of health care providers, including family practice, genetic counseling, poison control, and hospice home care. Her focus is on the communication mechanisms of interpersonal interactions which predict adherence, coping, health behaviors, psychosocial adjustment. In particular, she is interested in communication which facilitates the cognitive and emotional processing of health information.