Mary Ann Abrams, M.D., M.P.H., spearheaded the development of Health Literacy Iowa, the statewide center for health literacy, and leads Iowa Health System’s health literacy quality initiative. Her focus is on implementing and sustaining health literacy–related interventions in real-world clinical settings, including the development of a reader-friendly consent form for surgery/procedures, the Always Use Teach-Back! Toolkit, online modules on geriatrics and health literacy, and a reader-friendly shared decision-making tool. She co-chaired the American Academy of Pediatrics Health Literacy Project Advisory Committee, served on the American College of Physicians Foundation Health Literacy Programs Committee, and was twice selected as the Pfizer Visiting Professor in Health Literacy. She is coeditor and contributing author to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Plain Language Pediatrics guidebook and has publications on implementing health literacy–based interventions, fostering pediatric health literacy, and partnering with patients and adult learners. Through Reach Out and Read, she links health literacy to promoting early literacy and school readiness. Dr. Abrams is board-certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine and has worked at the clinical/public health interface at national, state, and local levels.
Thomas Bauer, M.B.A., is the corporate director of Remarkable Patient Experience at Novant Health. Novant Health is a 13-hospital system serving patients in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia with more than 26,000 employees, including a 1,100-plus physician medical
group. Mr. Bauer leads the research, development, and implementation of health literacy, patient empowerment, and cultural competence initiatives at Novant Health. He is a passionate leader in empowering patient partners through enhanced health literacy. Research conducted at Novant Health has resulted in increased patient understanding, reduced preventable readmissions, and enhanced patient satisfaction. As a result of the research findings, 26,000 clinicians, providers, and professional staff were trained in a modification of Ask Me 3 and teach-back.
Mr. Bauer is the 2011 recipient of the Eagle Award from the North Carolina Alliance for Health Communities. The Eagle Award is presented to an individual or organization that has demonstrated compelling vision, leadership, and excellence in their commitment to improving health outcomes in North Carolina communities. Mr. Bauer is a contributing author of the “Health Literacy Toolkit for Cardiology” and the “Health Literacy Toolkit for Rheumatology” with the health literacy researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research has been presented in numerous journal articles and at the International Stroke Symposium, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, International Health Literacy Researcher Conference, and numerous venues in his home state of North Carolina.
Lori Hall, R.N., is a health education consultant with Eli Lilly and Company, with almost 30 years of health care experience, including direct patient care as well as experience in the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries. Throughout her career, her focus has been in the areas of training and leadership development, adult learning, and coaching. Lilly’s health education department develops and delivers nonbranded, nonpromotional, patient-focused education materials aligned with health literacy principles in the areas where Lilly has presence and expertise. Ms. Hall played an integral role in Lilly’s entry in the Eleventh Annual Institute for Healthcare Advancement Health Literacy Awards, “Feel Your Best: Patient Education Brochures,” which was selected as the winner in the published materials category, thus giving national recognition to the company’s commitment to health literacy principles.
Ms. Hall is also spearheading an effort to raise corporate awareness on how better health communications help to improve patient adherence and, therefore, achieve better health outcomes. Through her work with a grass-roots initiative of Lilly advocates from other major patient “touch points,” health literacy pilots are being conducted in the areas of clinical trial management and informed consent, the medical call center, medical education grants, and brand marketing. Each of these pilots aligns with the overall vision to help engage, educate, and empower patients to be more active in their own health care.
Ms. Hall has a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Purdue University. Currently residing in Indianapolis, she dedicates her spare time as a mentor in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana.
Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez, M.S., M.P.H., is the president and chief executive officer of Urban Health Plan, Inc. (UHP), a network of community health centers located in the South Bronx and Queens, New York. Led by her efforts, UHP has grown from a one-site facility to a network of federally qualified community health centers that includes eight sites, eight school health programs, three part-time sites at facilities for at-risk populations, two large Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children sites, and multiple other grant-funded programs, serving 54,000 individual patients in 2012 through 320,000 visits. Ms. Hernandez spearheaded the development and implementation of an organization-wide health literacy and education strategy that has gained UHP national recognition. Its asthma management program has received the National Exemplary Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the work it has done in reducing asthma-related hospitalization rates in the South Bronx. UHP has been named 1 of the top 20 community health centers in the country by the Bureau of Primary Health Care and received the Nicholas E. Davies Award for Excellence from the Health Information Management Systems Society for excellence in the use of electronic health records. UHP has a Level 3 recognition as a Physician Practice Connections–Patient-Centered Medical Home from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Ms. Izquierdo-Hernandez is the immediate past president of the board of directors of the Community Health Care Association of New York State. She also serves on multiple professional and community boards and organizations, including the National Hispanic Medical Association, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the Primary Care Development Corporation, Affinity Health Plan, and the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Charter School for Health and Sciences.
Karen Komondor, R.N., is the director of education at the Health Literacy Institute at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, a 200-bed urban teaching hospital in the heart of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. As director, she is responsible for all aspects of staff and program development and patient education. Ms. Komondor has more than 30 years of experience as a registered nurse in a variety of roles, including as a critical care staff nurse, fixed-wing air transport nurse, and critical care educator. From her many years of experience with patients, she has recognized the importance of health literacy’s relationship to patient care and was the first to coordinate a systemwide program that served to promote health literacy
awareness. Funded by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center began its health literacy initiative in 2007 in collaboration with Project Learn, Greater Cleveland’s premier adult literacy center. Since that time, Ms. Komondor has led the initiative with a goal to promote health literacy across the continuum of patient care. Ms. Komondor has conducted health literacy training at more than 30 health care facilities and conferences. She is currently working on strategies to build a regional and statewide collaborative in Ohio.
Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, M.Ed., is principal of Kurtz-Rossi and Associates, a women-owned business providing health, literacy, education, and evaluation services. She is a member of the Clear Language Group, a consortium of women-owned health literacy consultants, and is a nationally known health literacy professional development specialist. Her work supports integrating health and literacy education, enhancing patient and provider communication, developing plain-language health education materials, and using Web-based consumer health resources. Recent projects include developing a health literacy curriculum for computer training classes taught in Spanish for the Zufall Community Health Center, the Morris County Organization for Hispanic Affairs, and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine–New England Region and conducting an implementation and evaluation project to increase access to reliable health information via the Internet among older adults in rural Maine. She is coauthor of Building a Health Literate Organization: A Guidebook to Achieving Organizational Change (in press). Ms. Kurtz-Rossi is an adjunct clinical instructor at Tufts University School of Medicine, where she teaches health literacy and adult learning theory. She is also course director of the Health Literacy Leadership Institute.
Bridget McCandless, M.D., is a board-certified internal medicine specialist with an interest in chronic disease management and poverty medicine. She serves as the medical director and cofounder of the Shared Care Free Clinic, which serves uninsured, low-income adults with chronic illness. She provides direct patient care and directs a care team of diabetes educators, pharmacists, nurses, mental health providers, ophthalmologists, podiatrists, and primary and specialty care physicians. Their outcomes-driven program has produced diabetes and hypertension outcomes that beat benchmarks for commercially insured patients. She continues her work in the areas of health care reform, patient advocacy, and health literacy.
Dr. McCandless currently serves as the co-chair of the Infrastructure Committee of the Safety Net Coalition, as a board member of the Missouri Chapter of the American College of Physicians, and as a member of
the Missouri Medicaid Oversight Committee. She served as president of the Metropolitan Medical Society, president of the Missouri Association of Free Clinics, and chair of the Healthy Independence Coalition and was a past member of the Health Care Foundation board of directors.
Laura Noonan, M.D., joined the Department of Pediatrics at Carolinas Medical Center in 1994. In addition to her educational role on the faculty, she continues to practice medicine in the ambulatory, inpatient, and newborn nursery settings. She is a founding organizer and current director of the Center for Advancing Pediatric Excellence (CAPE) in the Department of Pediatrics at Levine Children’s Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center. CAPE was established in 2007 to implement a longitudinal, project-based quality improvement (QI) curriculum for pediatric residents. In addition to QI education, CAPE provides QI project management and QI data management.
For the past 16 years, Dr. Noonan’s focus has been on the health care QI methodology and framework across the care continuum. She is a Charlotte Area Health Education Center senior improvement advisor. She teaches courses in QI methods to health care providers at the local, regional, and national levels. She is currently involved in either QI teaching or coaching roles for a variety of collaboratives. Dr. Noonan’s most recent publication is as a contributor to Quality Improvement: Methods, Principles, and Role in Healthcare. Dr. Noonan also has extensive experience teaching and advising about health literacy. She was the collaborative director for Carolinas HealthCare System’s QI-based health literacy initiative for 24 facilities across the third largest nonprofit health care system in the United States. She is currently an adviser for the next phase of this project, an initiative to educate 10,000 nurses across two states in health literacy strategies. She frequently lectures on this topic locally and nationally.
Prior to joining the Carolinas HealthCare System, Dr. Noonan practiced in the greater Charlotte area. From 1987 to 1990 she completed a pediatric residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a chief residency from 1990 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992 she was a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Noonan received her medical degree from the University of Arizona at Tucson.
Terri Ann Parnell, D.N.P., M.H.A., R.N., is the vice president of health literacy and patient education for the North Shore–Long Island Jewish (North Shore–LIJ) Health System. She is also an assistant professor of population health at the Hofstra North Shore–LIJ School of Medicine. Dr. Parnell is responsible for having established a diversity, inclusion, and
health literacy strategic plan and is implementing initiatives that support the mission of the office across the 16-hospital health system, its communities, and the Hofstra North Shore–LIJ School of Medicine. She has provided health literacy leadership and consultation for all departments across the health system and is integrating concepts of health literacy, cultural awareness, and patient-centered care into core activities of the organization.
With more than 30 years of experience in nursing and health care administration, Dr. Parnell is well known for innovation in the area of health literacy. Her accomplishments include the development of an online educational module titled “Health Literacy: Partnering for Patient-Centered Care.” She received second place in the champion category of the Leonard G. Doak Health Literacy Innovator Award for demonstration of commitment to excellence in health literacy within an organization. She has also received numerous nursing awards for excellence in research, patient and family education, and community service. Her expertise and passion for health literacy have made her a frequent presenter at local, national, and international conferences. She currently serves as a member of the steering committee of the American Nurses Association Care Coordination Quality Measures Panel. In addition, Dr. Parnell is widely published in the areas of women’s health and heart disease, patient education, and health literacy. As author of Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas: A Five-Week Program for Living a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle, Dr. Parnell incorporated her familiarity with the importance of community, culture, and lifestyle.
Audrey Riffenburgh, M.A., is the senior health literacy specialist at University of New Mexico (UNM) Hospitals, New Mexico’s only academic medical center and the region’s only Level 1 trauma center. UNM Hospitals has more than 600 beds and 24 offsite clinics. Ms. Riffenburgh manages systemwide changes for meeting the communication and access needs of patients with a wide range of health literacy skills. She conducts training and education of staff and leadership and consults at the organization, unit, and individual leader levels on strategies and processes to become a more health literate organization.
From 1994 to 2012, Ms. Riffenburgh was the president of Plain Language Works (formerly Riffenburgh and Associates), a health literacy and plain-language consulting firm. Her firm specialized in helping health care providers, public health professionals, government agencies, researchers, and others communicate information clearly and effectively. Clients of Plain Language Works included the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Indian Health Service, the Iowa Health System, the National Cancer Institute, and the Navajo nation
and other tribal communities. Ten publications created or edited by Plain Language Works received awards in the plain language competition sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Ms. Riffenburgh is a founding member of the Clear Language Group, a national consortium of health literacy, plain-language, and cross-cultural communications specialists. She is on the faculty of the nationally recognized Health Literacy Institute. Ms. Riffenburgh is working on a Ph.D. in health communication at UNM.
Karen Rogers, M.S.N., R.N.-B.C., is the director of the Western Maine Area Health Education Center and the director of education of the Franklin Community Health Network at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, Maine. She has 36 years of experience in nursing, with a B.S.N. degree from the University of Connecticut, an M.S. degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, and a postgraduate certificate from Kent State University. She is board-certified as a nursing professional development specialist and is active in many state and national associations. Besides overseeing and delivering education to all employees, she works closely with patients and their families for their educational needs. She is chairperson of her organization’s health literacy committee and collaborates with the Geriatric Education Center at the University of New England on a number of projects, including health literacy. Her passion for patient education and health literacy has led her to deliver multiple presentations at several statewide and national conferences over the past few years.
Ricardo Wray, Ph.D., M.S., is associate dean for graduate education and research and associate professor of behavioral science and health education at the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice in St. Louis, Missouri. He has dedicated his career to the study of how communication processes can promote informed choices and healthy behaviors, support the diffusion and adoption of innovative evidence-based practices by organizations, and enhance population health. As associate dean, Dr. Wray supports faculty, staff, and students in the development and management of externally funded grants and contracts. For more than 20 years, Dr. Wray has contributed to the design, implementation, and evaluation of health communication programs promoting reproductive health, emergency preparedness, and the prevention of violence, cancer, and chronic and infectious disease. His current research explores change management strategies to promote health literate organizations among health care systems serving poor, underserved, and rural populations. His research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Immunization Program, the Office of Smoking and Health and the Emergency Communication Branch at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Missouri Foundation for Health, Emerson Electric, Express Scripts Foundation, Ascension Health, and other sources. In recent years he has taught health communication, the application of theory in research and practice, and intervention research.
H. Shonna Yin, M.D., M.Sc., is a general pediatrician and an assistant professor of pediatrics in the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital Center. Her research interest centers on the issue of health literacy and its implications for child health. A large focus of her work involves examining the intersection between health literacy and medication safety, including the development and evaluation of low-literacy strategies to improve parent understanding of medication instructions. Some of her work is featured in The Joint Commission book Addressing Patients’ Health Literacy Needs. Dr. Yin is a key member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) PROTECT (Prevention of Overdoses and Treatment Errors in Children Taskforce) initiative and served as co-chair of the subcommittee focused on the standardization of dosing instructions for pediatric medications.
Currently, Dr. Yin is principal investigator of a newly awarded multisite research grant to develop and evaluate a low-literacy medication labeling and dosing strategy for pediatric prescription liquid medications, as well as co–principal investigator of a multisite research grant to develop and test a low-literacy and numeracy-focused intervention for early childhood obesity prevention; both grants are funded by National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Development. Dr. Yin was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Physician Faculty Scholar (2009-2012) and a recipient of the Pfizer Fellowship in Health Literacy/ Clear Health Communication (2007-2009).
Dr. Yin is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester School of Medicine. She completed residency training in pediatrics at the NYU School of Medicine and received her master of science degree in clinical investigation through the CDC-sponsored Medicine and Public Health Research Fellowship Program at the NYU School of Medicine.
