Say Ah!’s experts can provide meaningful testimony, background, or quotes to help you understand and contextualize this complex problem, and we can introduce you to some of our many clients who are impacted by it. Experts from Say Ah! include:
Anna J. Allen and Helene Eisman Fisher, Say Ah! Co-Founders
Kim Ainis, Say Ah! Reading & Accessibility Expert
Peter Freedman, MFA, Say Ah! Information Design Adviser
Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD, Say Ah! Medical Adviser, Physician and Author
Tyree Oredein, MPH, DrPH(c), Board Member, Health Educator and Trainer
Heather Paladine, MD, Say Ah! Medical Adviser, Physician
Say Ah! Co-Founders Helene Eisman Fisher and Anna J. Allen: Fisher and Allen bring an incredible passion to their work, and can speak to health literacy issues impacting patients, care providers, communities, and health systems. They have worked closely with these groups in real world settings to identify and ameliorate individual and systemic health communication problems that serve as pervasive yet unnecessary barriers to care. In addition, their work starting and sustaining Say Ah! serves as a role model to anyone who has ever seen an injustice in a system and wanted to work to change it.
Fisher and Allen, who share writing backgrounds, have co-created and lead health literacy workshops for care providers at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University School of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency Program, NYU Cancer Center, and Hudson River HealthCare, among others; have co-created and lead workshops for health care consumers at numerous sites in the New York Metro area including the New York Public Library, Meals on Wheels, and Hudson Guild, among others; and have co-created numerous low literacy patient engagement materials, including Say Ah!’s Tips for Talking with Your Doctor™ card, that has been distributed nationally and in Haiti. They have presented to professional organizations such as The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and Health Literacy Action Group/New York, among others, and have have made informative contributions to health provider and consumer outlets including XM/Sirius’ Dr. Radio show, School Nurse News and Parent Guide News.
Say Ah! Reading and Accessibility Expert Kim Ainis: Kim Ainis is a reading expert, with a deep understanding of not just what people can read, but how people read, ensuring that printed and digital materials are accessible to broad audiences, including those with learning differences. Kim is the Director of the Chicago Reading & Dyslexia Center, which she founded in 1991. She has been teaching students with learning differences for more than 30 years, and has worked with dyslexic clients both in the United States and abroad. http://www.dyslexiachicago.com/index.html.
Say Ah! Information Design Adviser Peter Freedman, MFA: Peter Freedman is an expert in the field of universal information design, with a focus on making the web more useable for the elderly and those with low vision. His research in this area has been partially funded by the Markle Foundation, and has been presented in both the United States and Japan. In addition, he is a web designer and developer whose clients have included Maclaren, Time Warner, and ING. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College.
Say Ah! Medical Adviser Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD: Dr. Juahar is a practicing cardiologist and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Dr. Jauhar contributes frequently to the New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine on topics in medicine and cardiology. He is the recipient of the 2004 South Asian Journalists Association Special Recognition Award for outstanding contributions to health journalism, and is the New York Times best-selling author of Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation.
Say Ah! Board Member, Tyree Oredein, MPH, DrPH(c) Tyree Oredein is a health educator and training consultant who is particularly adept in the health literacy challenges facing ethnic minority youth, including LGBT youth, and other vulnerable populations. A health educator for several programs, Tyree facilitates workshops about sexuality, sexual health, self-esteem, education and vocation, media literacy, HIV/AIDS, and conducts LGBT sensitivity programming to help address the infrastructure responsible for health and social disparities affecting ethnic minority youth. She is an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University. Tyree received her Bachelor’s Degree from Wellesley College, her Masters of Public Health from Hunter College in Urban Public Health, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s School of Public Health in Health Education & Behavioral Sciences.
Say Ah! Medical Adviser Dr. Heather Paladine: Dr. Paladine not only serves on the medical advisory but has worked closely with Say Ah! to bring health literacy programming to the residents of New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency. She is a family physician and director of the Family Medicine residency training program at NY Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. In addition to health literacy, Dr. Paladine’s interests include: women’s health, medical education, and the use of technology for medical education and physician-patient communication.