Executive Board

Orkan Okan is professor of health literacy and heads the WHO Collaborating Center for Health Literacy at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. His research covers health literacy in society, focusing on disease prevention, health promotion, health care, education, and digitalization.

Kristine Sørensen is the founding director of the Global Health Literacy Academy and a visiting lecturer at the Centre of European Studies at the Maastricht University and at the MCI Management Center in Innsbruck. Her educational background is in medicine, public health, and global health diplomacy.

We’re excited to share more about the Vice President soon—check back for their bio.

Dr. Catina O’Leary is President and CEO of the United States based nonprofit Health Literacy Media (HLM). Dr. O’Leary served IHLA as Chair of the Council of Affiliates before taking on the role of Secretary General in January 2024.

Dr. Fleary is an Associate Professor in Community Health and Social Sciences at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Her research expertise includes health literacy, health equity and advocacy, chronic disease prevention, mental health, and child and adolescent health.

Robert A. Logan retired from the Senior Staff of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and is a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. Logan is the first editor of two books on health literacy research and was a co-founder of IHLA in 2016.

Dr. Carbone is Professor/Associate Dean at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She leads mixed methods community-engaged intervention studies to promote health among multiethnic groups with low literacy skills. She publishes widely, and presents and conducts trainings in the U.S. and worldwide.

Dr. Elmer is a registered nurse and public health researcher from University of Tasmania with experience leading complex, high impact health literacy projects in diverse settings aiming to achieve equitable health outcomes for people experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage.

Tom Bauer, Exec Dir of Patient Education at Johns Hopkins Medicine, is a nationally recognized leader in health literacy, known for advancing patient-centered education through innovation, empathy, and evidence-based practice.

We’re excited to share more about Jasmine soon—check back for their bio.

Laurie is Sr. Director of Health Literacy Strategy and Innovation at MSD. She partners to support improved patient communications with a strong focus on clinical trial innovation. She has served on national and international health literacy working groups and authored a dozen publications.

David Somekh is a consultant psychiatrist UK NHS for 40 years, and was engaged in quality improvement from 1990-1999. He was on the Board of European Society for Quality in Healthcare from 1999-2015 and is currently Network Director of European Health Futures Forum (since 2013). He is also a board member of Centre for Empowering Patients and Communities.

Dr Kelvin Ling is a health communications scholar focusing on health literacy, behaviour change communication, and dispute resolution. Alongside IHLA, he serves as the course developer on health promotion for nurses in Hong Kong and Guest Editor on Health Literacy for Public Health (RSPH).

Megan serves as Associate Professor and Consumer Health & Community Engagement Librarian at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. She earned her BA in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana and MLIS from Louisiana State University. Her research interest is library-community health literacy partnerships.

Dr. Mahesh Bhatt is a surgeon, author, researcher, and public health consultant with over three decades of experience in practice. He has worked with Government, Nongovernment, Academic, and Corporate Organizations as a clinician, researcher, educator, administrator, and health consultant.

We’re excited to share more about Oscar soon—check back for their bio.