Before coming to the University of Maryland, Dr. Heather Platter received her Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees in Family, Youth and Community Sciences from the University of Florida. As a doctoral student in behavioral and community health at the University of Maryland, she was a graduate assistant in the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy, as well as a Rudd Health Literacy Fellow.
Dr. Heather Platter, the Horowitz Center’s 2018-2019 Rudd Health Literacy Fellow and a Center Research Assistant, successfully defended her dissertation in May 2019. Her dissertation explored health literacy and informed decision-making about lung cancer screening among older adults with long-term smoking, which resulted in a health literacy theoretical model on informed decision-making about lung cancer screening.
A team of UMD researchers is developing a new mobile app to help people without regular access to health care cut through the thousands of fitness, nutrition, brain health and other offerings by providing a sort of one-stop wellness shop.
Cynthia Baur, the Center for Health Literacy's Director, co-wrote a chapter in the recently published book, Health Literacy: New Directions in Research, Theory and Practice.
During the fall 2014 semester, Diana Wang, Sama El Baz, Megan Keane, and Sarah Younan teamed up in HLTH 371: Communicating Safety and Health to design a health communication campaign for what they thought was just going to be another class project. Based on personal experiences abroad in Thailand, where children living in poverty were required to brush their teeth in school, Ms. El Baz and Ms. Wang suggested they craft their project around oral health.
