Building Public Trust in Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (PHEPR) Science

The National Academies’ Planning Committee on Building Public Trust in Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (PHEPR) Science will hold a workshop on 29-30 March.

Workshop discussants and participants will collaboratively generate actionable strategies and approaches to (re)build and maintain trust across this continuum, across stakeholders, across levels of the system (federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local), and across emergency types. Workshop discussants and participants will specifically:

• Examine why the topic of public trust (and trustworthiness, credibility, confidence in, among others) is important in PHEPR science and develop a shared understanding of its importance and its relationship to other factors that contribute to social cohesion in public health emergencies.
• Explore key elements of PHEPR science communication and generate actionable communications strategies based on recent experiences.
• Generate actionable strategies and approaches for building/maintaining trust, communicating PHEPR science and the scientific process in the face of uncertainty and in response to the recent decline in perceived credibility of federal, state, and local agencies.
• Examine the ways in which diverse demographic groups experience PHEPR science differently and generate strategies and approaches for building trust in PHEPR science and the scientific process that is tailored to these varied experiences.

Workshop Planning Committee members include:

• Sandra Quinn, Ph.D., M.Ed. (Chair), University of Maryland
• Dominique Brossard, Ph.D., University of Madison-Wisconsin
• Esther Chernak, M.D., M.P.H., FACP, Drexel University
• Kenny Hendrickson, Ph.D., University of the Virgin Islands
• Hilary Karasz, Ph.D., M.A., Public Health – Seattle and King County
• Jennifer Kiger, M.P.H., LSSBB, Harris County Public Health
• Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., Harvard University
• Kai Ruggeri, Ph.D., Columbia University
• Monica Schoch-Spana, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
• Cathy Slemp, M.D., M.P.H., Catherine C Slemp, LLC