Please read this important note about the IHA 2020 Conference!
Hi everyone. The IHA Health Literacy Conference Team is excited about this year’s conference agenda! I wanted to share a few thoughts and highlights, to help you plan your educational experience while you’re here.
New this year
In past years, our opening keynote took place on Thursday morning. This year, the official start of the conference is on Wednesday afternoon. We still have great programming on Wednesday morning, in the form of skill-building sessions (all included with your registration), but plan on being here no later than midday Wednesday for the conference kick-off.
· Our Poster Session / Opening Night Reception is now on Wednesday evening. Having the poster session earlier allows a little more time for you to network with the folks who present their work. And we’ll keep the posters up for you on Thursday to browse the ones you may have missed.
· Complimentary consultations with health literacy experts Jann Keenan and Janet Ohene-Frempong. Our Strategic Partners-Health Literacy have more than 50 years’ combined experience in the field. Talk to them about your print or digital publications, conducting field testing of your materials, integrating health literacy practices into your workplace, and more. The 30-minute consultations are free, but sign up before the conference and provide them with your materials ahead of time to make these sessions the most productive.
Toward proficiency
IHA is developing an Assessment-Based Health Literacy Specialist (HLS) Certificate Program. The certificate program includes 7 content domains that members of the health literacy community have decided a Health Literacy Specialist must demonstrate knowledge and expertise:
· Communication
· Public Health
· Education
· Language, Culture, and Identity
· Organizational Systems and Policies
· Community Engagement
· Ethics
We structure our breakout and skill-building sessions around these 7 content areas, to help you focus your education experience. We’ll share updates on the Certificate program at the conference.
Establishing Connections
One of the benefits of coming together as a health literacy community is the opportunity to network and connect with like-minded individuals. We designed our conference with this in mind. A few networking opportunities:
· Wednesday and Thursday evening each have a networking session. Wednesday is our Poster Session, while Thursday is a 2-hour session to meet and greet your colleagues.
· We’ve moved the awards program out of the Thursday luncheon, so you can concentrate on your colleagues—and your meal.
· More networking breaks during each day.
We hope these changes enhance your conference experience. As always, we look forward to hearing your thoughts afterward in the conference evaluation.
See you here in May!
Michael and the IHA Health Literacy Conference Team
Michael Villaire, MSLM
President/CEO
Institute for Healthcare Advancement
