Christina Zarcadoolas, PhD

Professor Christina Zarcadoolas is a sociolinguist. She is a nationally recognized expert in health literacy and public understanding of health and science. Her research focuses on analyzing and closing the gaps between expert knowledge and public understanding of health and environmental issues. Dr. Zarcadoolas is Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty of Mount Sinai she was on the faculty of Brown University.

Her critically acclaimed book, Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action, (co-authored with Andrew Pleasant, PhD., and Dr. David S. Greer, Jossey-Bass/Wiley 2006) develops an elaborated model of health literacy in terms of fundamental literacy, science literacy, civic literacy and cultural literacy. A review of the book in the New England Journal of Medicine referred to it as "required reading" for public health professionals responsible for developing new tools for communicating with patients and the general public.

Her applied social research is presently focused in three broad areas of public health: chronic disease management, informatics, and emergency preparedness communication.