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About the Institute Co-founders
Experts in the Field: We are national experts
in the fields of health literacy, plain language, and health communications.
We are also three of the founding members of the Clear Language
Group (CLG). See www.ClearLanguageGroup.com for
more information.
Extensive
Professional Experience: We are active, energetic learners and
practitioners, involved in wide-ranging projects that include:
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Health communication and social marketing research
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Materials development, design and testing
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eHealth applications such as structuring
and writing website
text
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Organizational change for adopting plain language
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Curriculum development
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Teaching and consulting
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We teach what we practice and practice what
we teach. Content Areas of Expertise: Our projects cover a broad
spectrum of health topics. Recent work has included:
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Addressing healthcare delivery issues including
safety and quality of care, medical decision-making, and
informed consent |
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Educating health professionals and students about health
literacy and health communication |
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Helping adults understand how to prevent, manage, and
make treatment choices about a range of conditions including
cancer, diabetes, asthma, heart failure, depression |
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Developing information accessible to consumers about
mental health, environmental health, aging, women’s
health, nutrition, and genetic research |
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Creating plain language information about Medicare and
changes in Medicare prescription drug coverage |
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Presenting at local, regional, and national conferences |
Available to Help You: Need
help in effective communications planning,
training, organizational capacity building, plain language materials
development? We are available year-round and serve clients across
the country.
Contact Us:
Sue Stableford (Maine): sstableford@une.edu
Wendy Mettger (Maryland): wmettger@mindspring.com
Audrey Riffenburgh (New Mexico): ar@plainlanguageworks.com
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 About Sue Stableford, MPH, MSB
Sue co-founded the Health Literacy
Institute at the University of New England 20 years ago with the
late Jane Root, Ph.D. Together,
they launched a statewide health literacy training program
in Maine and
then expanded it into the National Summer Institute for health
professionals from around the country.
Sue provides training
to many organizations, including large federal health agencies,
healthcare delivery systems, and
health communications
firms. She creates award-winning plain language health materials
and informed consent prototypes, consults on eHealth projects,
participates in health literacy research projects and federal
plain language
policy initiatives, and teaches in health profession education
programs.
To contact Sue, email or call her at the
Health Literacy Institute
Center for Community and Public Health
University of New England, Portland, Maine
sstableford@une.edu
Tel: 207-221-4567
For more information about the
University of New England: www.une.edu/ccph/training/hli.cfm
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 About Audrey Riffenburgh, MA
Audrey Riffenburgh, M.A., is President of Plain Language Works, LLC (founded in 1994 as Riffenburgh & Associates), a health literacy and plain language firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. PLW develops (and edits) award-winning, reader-friendly print and web health information to reach a broad and diverse public audience. Plain Language Works projects have been honored with six National Institutes of Health awards since 2005. Audrey was awarded seven highly-competitive Pfizer Visiting Professor grants.
Audrey's background includes more than 25 years in health literacy, adult literacy and English as a second language at the local, state, and national level. She served on the Steering Committee of the Plain Language Association InterNational and has been invited to present at PLAIN conferences in Amsterdam, Sydney, Toronto, and Washington, DC. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in health communication at the University of New Mexico.
Plain Language Works’ clients from across the U.S. and Canada include voluntary health organizations, public health departments, federal government agencies, health and hospital systems, universities, Native American tribes, and others.
To contact Audrey,
email her at ar@plainlanguageworks.com
or call
her at (505) 345-1107.
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 About Wendy Mettger, MA
Wendy Mettger, M.A., is President of Mettger Communications, a consulting firm specializing in health literacy and plain language projects designed to reach limited-literacy, culturally diverse, and underserved audiences.
Ms. Mettger is a principal and founding member of the Clear Language Group, a nationally known consortium of health literacy, plain language, and cross cultural experts.
She is recognized nationally as the co-founder of the National Work Group on Cancer and Literacy, the first federally-sponsored collaboration between health and literacy experts, and as the co-author of the well-respected guidebook, Clear
and Simple:
Developing Effective Print Materials for Low-Literate Readers.
She draws
on over
30 years of experience and a master’s degree in health communication
to serve as a health literacy and plain language expert to many Federal government agencies, such
as the National Institute on Aging; private
corporations such as Pfizer, Inc.; and nonprofit groups such as
the American Diabetes Association, National Council on Aging, March of Dimes,
and the New York City Poison Control Center. She develops easy-to-read and
understand materials, conducts consumer-based research, and
leads
workshops at national and state conferences on how to create easy-to-read materials for individuals with limited-literacy skills. In addition, she trains health professionals, educators, and communicators on plain language materials development and clear verbal communication techniques.
She has received five NIH Plain Language Awards, two Pfizer Visiting Lecturer Awards, two Center for Plain Language Clear Mark Awards, and one Federal Government Blue Pencil Award.
Degrees:
B.A. Sociology – 1976, University of California at Irvine
M.A. Communication – 1988, University of Maryland
To contact Wendy,
email her at wmettger@mindspring.com
or call her at (301) 270-2774.
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