Ruth Parker

Parker--2017 Dr. Parker is Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester, and was a Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. For over two decades, her work has focused on research, education, and advocacy efforts to advance our nation’s health literacy. She is an author of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and of the definition of health literacy used by Healthy People 2010, the IOM, the NIH, and the Affordable Care Act, as well as many scholarly pieces on health literacy. She is a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on Advisories to the FDA and PCORI. Dr. Parker served in leadership roles as a health literacy advocate for professional societies including the AMA and the ACP Foundation. She has consulted with numerous federal and state agencies, professional organizations and members of industry regarding their health literacy efforts. She was a member of the IOM Health Literacy Committee, a member and now Consultant to the Health Literacy Roundtable. She is a member of the Vital Directions Committee of the National Academy of Medicine and the Committee on Reproductive Health Services: Assessing the Safety and Quality of Abortion Care of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Dr. Parker has received national awards in recognition of her work, including the Silver Achievement Award from the AAMC, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the ACP, the Walter C. Alvarez Award from the American Medical Writers Association, the Cecilia and Lenard National Health Literacy Award, and FDA Advisory Committee Service Award. full CV available on request