Dr. Jeannine Relly's research focuses on global influences on news media systems, government information policy, press-state relations, democratic institutions, freedom of expression and access to information in countries in conflict and political transition. She also has a line of research focused on formal and informal institutions related to the policy issue of public corruption.

Dr. Relly holds a courtesy appointment with the School of Government and Public Policy and is an affiliated faculty member with the university's Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and Center for Border and Global Journalism. She also is the outgoing head of the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She is a former research fellow of The Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and has served on the advisory board of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute at The University of Arizona. Dr. Relly received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to conduct research for five months in India (2016-2017).

In the School of Journalism, Dr. Relly coordinated diversity and inclusiveness initiatives for more than five years. She also coordinated the School's Honors program.

Before joining the faculty, Dr. Relly worked for more than a dozen years as a journalist reporting in a number states, the Caribbean and the Mexico-U.S. borderlands.