Dr. Teresa Wagner
Associate Professor, Department of Health Administration & Health Policy
Education & Experience:
Currently, I serve as the Director of the UNTHSC State Certified Community Health Worker Training Center.
I received my doctorate in public health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth in 2015. My doctoral residency was completed at both the UT Center for Health Communication and the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas. In 2016, during my doctoral residency, I was hired by the Literacy Coalition as the Director of Health Literacy and have held positions in health literacy ever since. I also hold a BS in dietetics from Texas Christian University and an MS in nutrition from Texas Woman’s University. I joined the HSC School of Public Health as an assistant professor in 2017 and have since completed the STAR Leadership Fellowship, the Geriatric Practice Leadership Institute, the AIM AHEAD Leadership Fellowship, and become an associate professor. My projects in all these programs leveraged translational research to implement interactive tools to improve health literacy, patient safety, and public health.
Teaching Areas & Public Health Interests:
My teaching efforts over the years have focused on teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in nutrition, health literacy and communication. I’ve also developed and direct the UNTHSC State Certified Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Center. In addition, I have mentored several undergraduate and graduate students in nutrition and health literacy. My mentoring focus areas have been primarily related to translational projects using data to develop programs that help people and communities to better access, understand and use health information while boosting intern research skills and fostering career development. Successes have yielded the “What About Mom? app”, WebLitLegit and the “Teen Lifestyle Medicine Microcredential.”
Professional Activities & Awards:
As a registered and licensed dietitian with a doctorate in public health, I also hold certification in public health, patient safety, lifestyle medicine and health coaching. I am a certified community health worker instructor. I currently serve on the board of the Texas Association of Promotores and Community Health Workers (TAPCHW). Throughout my tenure as a health literacy expert, I’ve delivered numerous programs, speaking engagements and trainings on health literacy issues. I have also established both a multi-stakeholder health literacy collaborative with the DFW Hospital Council Foundation and Health Literacy Texas, a statewide nonprofit. I serve on the board of the International Health Literacy Association and work on multiple national committees, including the National Council for Patient Safety through Health Literacy and the U.S. Health Literacy Proclamation Event Planning Committee.
As a result of my work, I received the 2018 Texas Health Literacy Hero Award and the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas Christian University. In 2020, I received the U.S. Public Health Service Interprofessional Education Collaborative Award in Community Empowerment. In 2022, I was one of 25 National Institute of Health-selected researchers to study the use of artificial intelligence to abate health disparities. In 2023, I received the HSC School of Health Professions’ Faculty Achievement Award.
Scholarly Interests:
The overarching goal of my work is to advance the field of health literacy locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. I consider my work with community health workers as part of that goal, as I’ve always considered CHWs to be “the conduit to health literacy” in the community. I’ve advocated and testified on Texas health literacy legislation, and in 2018, helped place health literacy into the State Health Plan. At the same time, my research focuses on alleviating health disparities in underserved and rural communities through health literacy to improve population health.
My program of research extends the literature on translational interventions, tools and programs to improve both individual and organizational health literacy as clearly defined in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2030 health literacy definition. Consistent with my overarching interest to extend health literacy across all sectors, my current research aims to empower CHWs to deliver health literate care for older adults, postpartum mothers, and underserved and rural areas while addressing health disparities and structural inequities in chronic disease, opioid use and misuse, and patient safety.
My hope is that my overall body of research has had and will continue to have important implications for bringing health literacy to the forefront across the globe, developing new individual, organizational and community interventions and programs as well as making important public health impacts related to clear communication in all realms to improve whole health and patient safety.
My research has been funded by grants from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Library of Medicine, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
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