Liana Winett
Liana Winett, DrPH, MPH is Associate Professor in the Oregon Health & Science University–Portland State University (OHSU-PSU) School of Public Health in Portland, Oregon (USA). Dr. Winett is interested in how communities and broader society in the U.S. engage through popular discourse in the many complex and controversial social issues that affect the public’s health.
Dr. Winett approaches her work from two perspectives. First, she applies theory in researching the ways persuasive values-based narratives and arguments about health and social policy are constructed, and what those constructions suggest about the overall debate and the public’s likelihood of engagement with it. She has examined conventions in issue framing of topics such as federal school foods policy; food access; child healthy weight; early childhood development; maternal/child health and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD); breast, cervical and prostate cancers; land use legislation; interpersonal violence and gun policy; and the national public health response to bioterrorism. Second, Dr. Winett works with public health and public interest professionals to develop the tools and techniques of values-based message framing for advancing their issues. In particular, she focuses on how through narrative we can reconnect audiences to the many “behind the scenes” systems and structures that protect communities’ health, so that they can help to ensure that such systems continue.
Dr. Winett earned a Doctorate in in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining PSU, she was Research Coordinator for the Berkeley Media Studies Group in Berkeley, California.