Plenary 4: Advancing the Health Literacy Agenda

Cindy Brach is a Senior Health Care Researcher at the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Cindy is the Co-Chair of the HHS Health Literacy WorkGroups and served on the HHS Language Access Steering Committee. As the lead for AHRQ’s health literacy activities, Cindy’s projects have included the development of the AHRQ Health Literacy UniversalPrecautions Toolkit, CAHPS® Item Sets for AddressingHealth Literacy, AHRQ Informed Consent and AuthorizationToolkit for Minimal Risk Research, Making Informed Consent an InformedChoice: Training Modules for Health Care Leaders and Professionals, and the Patient Education MaterialsAssessment Tool (PEMAT).

Cindy is also AHRQ’s point person for cultural and linguistic competence and served on the National Project Advisory Committee to enhance the National Standards for culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services. In addition to overseeing the development of the TeamSTEPPS Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Module, Cindy commissioned and co-authored the Re-engineered Discharge Toolkit to address the needs of diverse patients. Cindy served on the National Academy ofMedicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy, where she led an effort to define the ten attributes of a health literate organization. Cindy is a founding Editorial Board member of the journal HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and on webinars and has published book chapters, blogs, and in journals such as Health Affairs, Journal of General internal medicine, Journal for Healthcare Quality, Journal of Health Communication, and medical care.

Contact information: Jose.lopez@hcnmedia.com

José is the Vice President of Production at Hispanic Communications Network. He specializes in culturally driven creative, messaging and digital/traditional production elements that speak to the hearts and minds of Hispanic audiences. He has a large health portfolio within HCN’s social and health marketing practice, where he leads development in-culture and in-language digital, social, radio, video and earned media messaging and materials for government, nonprofit, CSR and private foundation clients/sponsors. José is also a well-known and credible voice among US Spanish-speaking communities. Known as “La Voz del Pueblo” (the voice of the people), he has 30+ years’ experience as a multimedia writer, journalist, reporter and radio personality.

José serves as the main creative lead, script writer and producer for HCN government and nonprofit clients prioritizing 65+ Hispanic audiences. He is also working with the CDC and National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) on a digital campaign connecting Hispanic cancer survivors 65+ and caregivers with the CDC’s “Talk to Me” AI simulation. For the past 5 years, José has been working with the EPA Office of Pesticide Protection as part of a radio and digital campaign to create awareness among farmworkers on the updated Worker Protection Standards (WPS) and encourage reporting of exposures to the National Protection Information Center (NPIC). Through HCN’s partnership with UnidosUS (former NCLR) and Alzheimer’s Association, he also led creative on the development of Spanish-language multimedia materials on recognizing Alzheimer’s Disease. José is currently leading social media content for HRSA’s DonaciondeOrgaons.gov Facebook page.

During the pandemic, José is serving as the creative lead on a number of COVID-19 vaccine readiness and response multimedia outreach initiatives engaging Hispanic 65+ communities: 1) HHS-ASPA on the COVID-19 Public Education Campaign engaging diverse Hispanic populations on prevention and vaccine readiness, which includes digital, social, TV, radio and print executions; 2) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to address the “infodemic” by providing timely and fact-based Spanish-language updates via popular digital and radio channels; and, 3) the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and PhRMA on addressing economic and health hardships during the pandemic.

José is a, graduate Universidad Nacional Autónoma Metropolitana (UNAM), México City, with a BA in, Social Communications & Journalism.