Cynthia Baur, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor for Health Literacy and the senior official for the Plain Writing Act, Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She chairs the CDC Health Literacy Council and manages the CDC health literacy web site and blog. She is one of the co-developers of CDC’s Clear Communication Index and online health literacy training for health professionals. She is a co-chair of the HHS Health Literacy Workgroup and co-chair of the Healthy People 2020 Health Communication and Health Information Technology Workgroup.
Dr. Baur has received several health literacy awards, including the Institute for Healthcare Advancement 2015 Health Literacy Hero; the 2013 Cecilia and Leonard Doak Health Literacy Champion Award from Health Literacy Missouri; and the American Medical Writers Association 2013 McGovern Award for leadership in health communication, health literacy, and risk communication. Dr. Baur holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego.