Health Literacy Committee
Dr. Lewis is Field Service Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. She coordinates and supervises the educational activities within Division of General Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s, including program development, curriculum and evaluation. She is the education consultant to the medical center’s faculty development program, an integrated, multi-level, multidisciplinary program of faculty development in teaching. In collaboration with the College of Education at the University of Cincinnati, she and her colleague, Raymond C. Baker, MD, MEd, have developed an Online Master's Degree in Education for Physicians and Other Healthcare Professionals, which has been offered both nationally and internationally since 2002. She is the associate director of the program and also teaches two courses online. Due to her special interest in health literacy, she participated in the Health Literacy Train-the-Trainer (TOT 3) program funded through the AMA by Pfizer in May 2005. She presented a mini course on Health Literacy at the PAS Meeting in May, 2006 in San Francisco including grand rounds and other conference presentations with her health literacy team.
Morgan is the Education Consultant for Patient and Family Education in the Center for Professional Excellence at Cincinnati Children's. She received her master’s degree in Healthcare Administration and master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In her consultative role, she coordinates and assists in the development of education for patients and their families at Cincinnati Children’s. Her primary focus is to establish a strong patient and family education program, involving parents and staff in the creation of education materials that are easy-to-read and understand. Joan has provided a patient and family education module on each clinical unit’s intranet site, enabling the staff to place pertinent educational information for use by the entire hospital. She also organized the introduction of a Spanish Educational Channel at the hospital. Throughout her extensive health care career, she has been involved in various aspects of patient and family education and has a particular interest in health literacy. Joan has given health literacy presentations to health care educators and is conducting a health literacy workshop for employees at Cincinnati Children’s several times a year. In May 2009, Dr. Lewis and Joan co-presented a workshop on health literacy at the PAS meeting in Baltimore, MD. Joan also serves as a volunteer in the Adult New Readers Program in Warren County, Ohio. She works with adults with low literacy skills and non–native English speakers.
Committee Members:
Detrice Barry, PhD
Dr. Barry is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Wright State University-Miami Valley College of Nursing and Health in Dayton, Ohio. Her primary teaching responsibilities are in the area of Community Health Nursing for undergraduate and doctoral nursing students. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing and Masters of Science in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia. She received her PhD in Human Services and a Graduate Certificate in Diversity Studies from Capella University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her extensive community nursing clinical experience also includes gerontology. In 2008, she received the Community Service Award for the Elderly from the Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio, Chapter for her efforts with the safe Aging Coalition in Warren County. She has served as a volunteer for several years on a local, regional and national level in the bleeding disorder community. Detrice has made numerous presentations at the National Hemophilia Foundation, Inc and the Hemophilia Federation of America, Inc. and served three years as president of FAMOHIO, Inc (Family Annual Meeting of Hemophiliacs in Ohio). Her passion and research interests are in patients and families with bleeding disorders in the areas of treatment decision-making, health education and advocacy.
Denise Britigan, MA
Britigan received her undergraduate degree in Medical Technology from Saint Louis University and her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. She became interested in health literacy and consumer health while working as the Education Coordinator and a reference librarian at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa. She has participated in web conferences on Health Literacy through the Medical Library Association and the American Library Association. Prior to returning to school for her PhD in Health Promotion and Education /Community Health (in progress), Denise worked at the Academic Information Technology and Libraries (AIT&L) at the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center. Most recently, Denise attended an all day workshop on "Health Literacy for Diverse Audiences" by the OSU/Health Literacy Initiative Outreach and Engagement at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Denise completed her Health Promotion and Education Internship in Employee Health at Cincinnati Children’s in the spring of 2007. As a part of her on-going research study, Denise gathers data on the sources of health information and the health literacy levels among Latino residents in Southwest Ohio.
Calderon is an Education Specialist for the Social Services Division at Cincinnati Children’s. She received an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Thomas More College and a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Kentucky. In her current position at the hospital, Kathy is responsible for orienting new Social Services staff, developing preceptors, arranging ongoing education opportunities for hospital social workers, and facilitating the social work student field placement program in Social Services. She has done presentations to hospital staff on professional boundaries and psychosocial issues of children undergoing cancer treatment. She serves on the Social Work Education Council and the Social Work Professional Inquiry Council. In addition, Kathy is a Safety Coach and Magnet Champion for her division in the hospital and assists with various hospital-wide initiatives. Kathy maintains a providership with the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for social work continuing education hours. Prior to her position as Education Specialist, Kathy practiced as a medical social worker and a psychiatric social worker.
Anne Chambers, RN, MSN
Chambers is a Care Manger in the Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center at Cincinnati Children's. Chambers received master’s degrees in nursing and a master’s degree in education from Xavier University. Her primary responsibilities involve care coordination for patients with thrombophilia including patient education and discharge planning. Anne works with inpatient patients and families as well as patients and families followed in the outpatient clinic. She is a member of the Anticoagulation Therapy Team and recently developed new educational materials for patients receiving anticoagulation medications. She also serves on the editorial board of Bloodline, a joint venture between the Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center at Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, which provides up-to-date information for members of the bleeding disorders community. Chambers is also a member of the Clinical Content Committee.
Tiffiny Diers, MD
Dr. Diers is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Duke University and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UC. After a Chief Residency in Internal Medicine, she joined the UC faculty and is now a practicing MedPeds doctor, an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine residency program and a student in the Masters in Medical Education program begun by Drs. Lewis and Baker. Dr. Diers has a strong interest in caring for underserved populations and is the co-Director of UC’s Initiative on Poverty, Justice and Health, where her areas of expertise are health literacy and Latino health. She is also active in training residents in quality improvement and coordinates the Healthcare Improvement Curriculum that is part of the residency program’s Educational Innovations Project through the ACGME, was the Education Leader for her practice’s Academic Chronic Care Collaborative team and is a key faculty in the RWJ-funded Achieving Competence Today program for training residents in quality improvement.
Rammel is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Rheumatology at Cincinnati Children’s. She graduated from Wright State University in 2006 with a BS in Biology. She worked previously at Dayton Children’s doing clinical research in both asthma and health literacy. She is currently working on her Master of Public Health degree at Wright State. Her interests include patient and family education, self-management and health promotion. She is also a member of the Rheumatology Self-management Committee.
Jonathan Tolentino, MD
Dr. Tolentino is a resident physician in the University of Cincinnati / Cincinnati Children’s Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residency. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, he received his AB in Political Science from Davidson College and his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. He has been honored with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for service and humanism while at Davidson College. He has worked extensively with numerous free clinics in North Carolina, Georgia and Ohio, and has assisted in opening a Latino Free Clinic in Augusta, Georgia. He has sat on the Board of Directors for Health Students Taking Action Together in Georgia and chaired the Reducing Georgia’s Uninsured committee during his tenure. Currently Dr. Tolentino is working with the Latino Health Collaborative to improve health care access to Latinos in the Cincinnati community. He is currently conducting research looking at healthcare and the young adult uninsured. His interests include health policy, health services research, medical/residency education, Latino health, Asian-American health and health literacy. He currently serves on the Residency Advisory Council at University Hospital, and both the Clinical Content Committee and the Health Literacy Committee at Cincinnati Children’s. He plans to continue a career in primary care with an emphasis on health policy, health services, research and healthcare advocacy.
Ad Hoc Committee Members:
Raymond C. Baker, MD, M.Ed.
Sara Murdick, MD
Lisa Simpson,MB, BCh, MPH
Greg Szumlas, MD
Leigh Wang, PhD
Contact the Health Literacy Committee at Cincinnati Children's
