Scott C. Ratzan

Scott C. Ratzan is distinguished lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy.^[1] He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Communication and holds adjunct faculty appointments at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health^[2] and Tufts University School of Medicine.^[3]

Ratzan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Rhetoric from Occidental College, a Master of Arts in Communication from Emerson College, and a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. He received a Doctor of Medicine from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, where he is also listed as a notable alumnus.^[1]

Ratzan began his career in the 1990s as a professor and Founding Director of the Emerson-Tufts Masters Program in Health Communication. In 1995, he became founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives. From 1998 to 2000, Ratzan served as executive director of the AED. He later worked as a senior technical advisor in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development from 2000-2002.^[4] From 2002-2018, Ratzan held corporate and policy roles with innovative business approaches intended to link health, sustainability and social impact across multiple stakeholders. For over a decade at Johnson & Johnson in Brussels and later in New Jersey, he first established and led the European Government Affairs & Policy activities in Brussels and subsequently the global health diplomacy unit at J&J Headquarters. He contributed to the development and promotion of the mobile health service Text4Baby, launched in collaboration with the White House and more than 700 nongovernmental organizations to provide free text messages on maternal and infant health.^[5] He also participated in the creation of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), a public–private partnership involving the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations Foundation and designed to improve maternal health information access in low-resource settings.^[6]

During his tenure at AB InBev, Ratzan was involved in the establishment of the global road-safety coalition Together for Safer Roads, launched at the United Nations with a consortium of international companies.^[7] He also contributed to the development of the company’s decade-long Global Smart Drinking Goals, an initiative aimed at reducing harmful alcohol use through community partnerships, product innovation and public-health collaborations.^[8]

Ratzan contributed in several roles in public health and global health governance. In 2000, Ratzan co-authored the definition of the term health literacy adopted by HHS and integrated in the Affordable Care Act, defined as "the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions."^[9] He is a member of the Board of Global Health of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.^[10] From 2010 to 2013, he co-chaired the Innovation Working Group in support of Every Woman Every Child, a United Nations initiative aimed at improving health outcomes for women and children.^[11] From 2012-2016, he served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Disease. He currently co-chairs the Council for Quality Health Communication.^[12]

Following sixteen years in the private sector, he was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School, where he published the Guiding Principles for Multisectoral Engagement for Sustainable Health.^[13]

He served as the executive director of Business Partners for Sustainable Development, an initiative of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) focused on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).^[14]

As of 2025, he serves as co-chair of the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All, alongside Heidi Larson, Larry Gostin, and Carolina Batista. The international initiative focuses on improving the credibility, accessibility, and governance of global health information. Ratzan has over 175 publications indexed in PubMed ^[15] and has written op-eds or commentary for outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.

• Ratzan, S. C. “Health Literacy: Communication for the Public Good.” Health Promotion International 16(2): 207–214 (2001), Oxford University Press.^[16]

• Ratzan, S. C. “Quality Communication: The Path to Ideal Health.” Joseph Leiter Lecture, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Reprinted in Journal of Health Communication 6(3): 173–184 (2001), Taylor & Francis.^[17]

• Parker, R. M.; Ratzan, S. C.; Lurie, N. “Health Literacy: A Policy Challenge for Advancing High-Quality Health Care.” Health Affairs 22(4): 147–153 (2003), Project HOPE.^[18]

• Larson, H. J.; Cooper, L. Z.; Eskola J, Katz S.L., Ratzan, S. C.;. “Addressing the Vaccine Confidence Gap.” The Lancet (2011), Elsevier.^[19]

• Lazarus, J. V.; Ratzan, S. C.; et al. “A Global Survey of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance.” Nature Medicine 26(7): 925–928 (2020), Nature Publishing Group.^[20]

Ratzan, Scott C. (1993). AIDS: Effective Health Communication for the 90s. Routledge.

Ratzan, Scott C. (1998). Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good. UCL Press; New York University Press.

Ratzan, Scott C. (2024). Vaccine Communication in a Pandemic. Taylor & Francis.

Ratzan, Scott C.; LeSar, Jonathan W.; Filerman, Gary L. (2000). Attaining Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau.

• Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2025).^[21]

• John P. McGovern Award, American Medical Writers Association (2025).^[22]

• Joseph Leiter National Library of Medicine / NIH Lecture (2001), “Quality Communication: The Path to Ideal Health,” reprinted in the Journal of Health Communication.^[23]

• Emerson College Alumni Achievement Award (2019).^[24]

Ratzan began his career in the 1990s as a professor and Founding Director of the Emerson-Tufts Masters Program in Health Communication. In 1995, he became founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives. From 1998 to 2000, Ratzan served as executive director of the AED. He later worked as a senior technical advisor in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development from 2000-2002. From 2002 to 2013 he was vice president for pharmaceuticals, global health and policy at Johnson & Johnson based in Brussels and New Jersey headquarters.

Ratzan contributed in several roles in public health and global health governance. In 2000, Ratzan co-authored the definition of the term health literacy adopted by HHS and integrated in the Affordable Care Act, defined as "the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions."^[1] He is a member of the Board of Global Health of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.^[2] From 2010 to 2013, he co-chaired the Innovation Working Group in support of Every Woman Every Child, a United Nations initiative aimed at improving health outcomes for women and children.^[3]} From 2012-2016, he served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Disease. He currently co-chairs the Council for Quality Health Communication.^[4]

From 2018 to 2019, he was a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School, where he contributed to the development of the Guiding Principles for Multisectoral Engagement for Sustainable Health. He served as the executive director of Business Partners for Sustainable Development, an initiative of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) focused on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).^[5]

Ratzan is a co-founder of CONVINCE, a global initiative promoting vaccine confidence and uptake.^[6] He was also involved in the development of Text4Baby, a national health-related text messaging service for pregnant women.^[7]

As of 2025, he serves as co-chair of the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All, alongside Heidi Larson, Larry Gostin, and Carolina Batista. The international initiative focuses on improving the credibility, accessibility, and governance of global health information.

Ratzan has over 175 publications indexed in PubMed ^[8] and has written op-eds or commentary for outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.

• Ratzan, S. C. “Health Literacy: Communication for the Public Good.” Health Promotion International 16(2): 207–214 (2001), Oxford University Press.^[9]

• Ratzan, S. C. “Quality Communication: The Path to Ideal Health.” Joseph Leiter Lecture, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Reprinted in Journal of Health Communication 6(3): 173–184 (2001), Taylor & Francis.^[10]

• Parker, R. M.; Ratzan, S. C.; Lurie, N. “Health Literacy: A Policy Challenge for Advancing High-Quality Health Care.” Health Affairs 22(4): 147–153 (2003), Project HOPE.^[11]

• Larson, H. J.; Cooper, L. Z.; Eskola J, Katz S.L., Ratzan, S. C.;. “Addressing the Vaccine Confidence Gap.” The Lancet (2011), Elsevier.^[12]

• Lazarus, J. V.; Ratzan, S. C.; et al. “A Global Survey of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance.” Nature Medicine 26(7): 925–928 (2020), Nature Publishing Group.^[13]

• AIDS: Effective Health Communication for the 90s (Routledge, 1993).

Ratzan, Scott C. (1993). AIDS: Effective Health Communication for the 90s. Routledge.

• Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good (New York University Press, 1998).

Ratzan, Scott C. (1998). Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good. New York University Press.

• Vaccine Communication in a Pandemic (Taylor & Francis, 2024).

Ratzan, Scott C. (2024). Vaccine Communication in a Pandemic. Taylor & Francis.

• Attaining Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities (Population Reference Bureau).

Ratzan, Scott C. Attaining Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities. Population Reference Bureau.

• Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers (2025).^[14]
• John P. McGovern Award, American Medical Writers Association (2025).^[15]
• Joseph Leiter National Library of Medicine / NIH Lecture (2001), “Quality Communication: The Path to Ideal Health,” reprinted in the Journal of Health Communication.^[16]

• Emerson College Alumni Achievement Award (2019)."Alumni Achievement Awards". Emerson College. Emerson College Alumni Association. Retrieved 25 November 2025.

• Listed among notable alumni of the Keck School of Medicine of USC notable alumni.^[17]