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Environmental health literacy (EHL) is an emerging framework for building knowledge and skills that can reduce environmental exposures and improve human health outcomes. Drawing from such fields as communication, education, and participatory research, EHL provides a bidirectional evaluation tool that respects local context while also building community and research capacity. Whether informing the development and dissemination of research report-back materials and other informative products, driving the development and evaluation of interventions, or establishing a means of identifying optimal collaborative networks, incorporating EHL into public health research and practice is an important strategy for helping reduce the burden of environmentally-induced diseases. In this session, we will discuss the history of EHL, as well as its theoretical and methodological underpinnings. We also will discuss specific case studies that highlight distinct uses of the framework. Finally, we will apply an ethical lens to better understand the application of EHL to foster environmental justice across all populations.

This presentation addresses improving health literacy and the NNLM initiative of environmental determinants of health through research and using an ethical lens to better effectively advance environmental justice for all populations.

About the Speaker

Dr. Anna Goodman Hoover is a public health researcher and participatory communication scientist. Dr. Hoover studies health and risk communication strategies designed to ensure that the best available scientific evidence informs individual, community, policy, and practice decisions. She also works directly with local stakeholders on research projects intended to improve environmental health literacy and strengthen communication. Her research has examined how knowledge gaps and distrust combine to negatively affect capacity to understand health hazards and take protective action. Dr. Hoover’s recent environmental health literacy research has surfaced stakeholder concerns about the need for more accessible, understandable, and useful health-related information to help people protect themselves from diseases that have been linked to exposures. A native Appalachian, Dr. Hoover centers both her research and her teaching on ensuring stakeholder-engaged and audience-centered environmental health communication supports community-engaged, evidence-informed health decisions.