Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century

Online Program Overview

When deployed successfully, effective risk communication is an invaluable tool for engendering trust, helping the public make informed decisions, and protecting human health. Every day, public health information and misinformation is generated and shared with the public about diseases, public policies, new products, or corporate behavior. Risk communication skills are needed now more than ever in our highly complex information ecosystem. With the speed that information travels today through traditional media, online outlets, and social media, many communicators are searching for the best ways to share their messaging accurately and timely—for the public’s safety and benefit.

Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century, the online program from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Executive and Continuing Education, draws on the latest science of science and risk communication to share frameworks from which to develop communications and messaging to increase trust and reduce public anxiety. You will learn from Harvard faculty and some of the most notable scientists working on risk communication, crisis communication, public health emergencies, decision making, big data, and public health leadership. These authorities will explain how to apply cutting edge ideas in communicating risk in a complex information environment using recent situations involving misinformation efforts targeting vaccinations, climate change, and more to illustrate concepts and explore implications for practice.

This collection of faculty and experts will dive into and explain the risk communication landscape, focusing on topics like:

• How to use the news media in an era where “trusted sources” and “established science” carry less public sway than they did before
• Understanding how emotion and cognition interactively shape risk perception and risk preferences
• Informing your communication strategy using infodemiology—the science research focused on scanning the internet for user-contributed health-related content
• How to effectively address misinformation in science and health

Objectives & Highlights

Objectives

• Understand the impact of risk communications on the public’s risk perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, including compliance
• The best ways to generate and communicate risk information during crisis and non-crisis periods
• Design effective risk communication messages drawing on the science of strategic communication and health communication
• Become familiar with and practice methods for evaluating risk communication efforts

Highlights

• Interactive sessions covering case studies that will be applicable to your job from your first day back
• Expert faculty that helps you view risk assessments through the lenses of sociology, psychology, public policy, and the current media landscape
• Network and learn from a world-wide cohort of risk communicators who identify with the same issues you have in this area
• Along with CEU credits, after completing the program you will be awarded a Certified Electronic Credential that is shareable both as a document and on social media platforms

Curriculum

Major topics to be covered in the course will include:

• The psychosocial and societal determinants of risk communication through the scientific and systematic overview of risk communication literature
• Strategic communication of risk information including audience segmentation, designing messaging, and executing risk communications
• Message construction formats for the communication of risk, including fear, narratives, and exemplars
• Risk communication inequalities and disparities in health outcomes
• Risk communication and decision making
• Communication technologies and risk communication

Credits and Logistics

Continuing Education Credit

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will grant 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this program, equivalent to 12 contact hours of education. Participants can apply these contact hours toward other professional education accrediting organizations.

All credits subject to final agenda.

All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation upon completion of the program.

Faculty

Current faculty, subject to change.

Kasisomayajula Viswanath, PhD

Program Director

September 16 – 19, 2025

Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Chair
Steering Committee, Health Communication Concentration

Director
Enhancing Communications for Health Outcomes Laboratory

Faculty Director
Health Communication Core
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH, FACP, MBA

Faculty

September 16 – 19, 2025

Director
Office of National Drug Control Policy
The White House

Edmund W. J. Lee

Faculty

September 16 – 19, 2025

Jennifer S. Lerner, PhD

Faculty

September 16 – 19, 2025

Thorton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy & Decision Science
Harvard Kennedy School

Professor
Harvard University

Rebekah H. Nagler

Faculty

September 16 – 19, 2025

Ivan Oransky, MD

Faculty

September 16 – 19, 2025

Distinguished Journalist in Residence
Arthur Carter Journalism Institute
New York University

Agenda

Who Should Participate

Professionals responsible for communicating about risk from private industry, the non-profit sector, and from governments around the world will benefit from attending. Participants with the following job functions are encouraged to attend:

• Communications, public relations, and public affairs
• Emergency preparedness and management
• Government relations and regulatory affairs
• Health policy and research
• Occupational and environmental health
• Public health, health promotion, and health education
• Risk analysis and management