LaShawnda Kilgore

LaShawnda Kilgore
MA - Illinois State Univ.
007A Switzler Hall
Bio

LaShawnda Kilgore is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Communication. She currently teaches. Communication 1200. Her research is geared towards understanding the experiences of foster youth (former and current). Specifically, she seeks to understand how they communicatively process and cope with trauma. She is fascinated by the resilience of former foster youth. Many foster youth face a variety of challenges throughout their lifetime such as familial instability, abuse, and neglect. Due to these traumas, they are predisposed to negative outcomes such as PTSD rates higher than those of military veterans and even 20-year decrease in life expectancy. She is determined to write their stories into literature. Her long-term goals are to inform and produce policies and practices geared towards eradicating the negative outcomes of foster youth.