Advisory Board

E. Suzanne Flint, MA is a child life specialist and health educator with a Masters Degree in Health Arts and Sciences. She has over 20 years of clinical experience working with children and their families to help them manage a full array of healthcare and lifestyle issues.

She was instrumental in creating programs, resources and standards for health education materials and services at Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford from 1985-2003. Her efforts there included creating and managing one of the country's first Family Health Resource Centers, a workshop series teaching children cognitive/behavioral strategies for coping with stress, and a statewide coalition for the nationally known pediatric early literacy program, Reach Out and Read. After moving to Sacramento in 2003, she served as the Executive Director of two statewide nonprofits, California Reach Out and Read as well as the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness.  Since 2005 she has worked as a Library Programs Consultant for the California State Library on issues related to health, human development, and information access.

Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, M.Ed. is the Project Coordinator for the Health Information Literacy Research Medical Library Association and recently coordinated World Education’s health and literacy projects. She works with teachers and adult learners all over the country on how best to integrate health and literacy education in adult basic education (ABE), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), and family literacy programs. She provides training and support to teachers and health educators interested in health and literacy program implementation and materials development.

Dean Schillinger, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He is a practicing primary care physician at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH), a large urban public hospital, where he sees patients, teaches in the primary care residency program, and conducts research as a member of the UCSF Primary Care Research Center. In his administrative capacities, he has directed the Medi-Cal managed care clinic at SFGH, the ambulatory care clinics at SFGH, and has been the Director of Clinical Operations for the Department of Medicine. Dr. Schillinger has focused his research on healthcare for vulnerable populations, including the impact of managed care, improving systems of care for publicly-insured and uninsured patients, and most recently, health communication.

Dr. Carole Talan, Ph.D. has a doctorate in language arts and reading with over 25 years experience in the field of adult and family literacy. She retired in 2004 as the Adult and Family Literacy Specialist with California State Library’s library literacy services at the California State Library. She has dedicated over 25 years to working in the fields of adult and family literacy. A former teacher and college professor and an internationally recognized literacy administrator and trainer, Dr. Talan has published numerous books, curriculum guides and articles about literacy, coordinated literacy research, and produced three highly successful documentary short films on adult literacy.