Crisis communication is an essential part of preparedness efforts for emergencies like infectious disease outbreaks, humanitarian crises, natural disasters, and more. Public health crises demand a proactive and well-structured communication approach. In this course, you will go through the principles of crisis planning to enable your organization to respond rapidly, deliver accurate information, and minimize harm to the public.
What You’ll Learn
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Define and explore crisis planning, including scenario mapping, common roles and responsibilities, and training exercises
- Develop key messages and talking points for crisis communication scenarios
- Identify priority audiences and communication channels for those key messages
- Ensure communication is accessible, plain language, actionable, and audience-tailored
- Prepare for, identify, and manage misinformation, and
- Design an appropriate evaluation plan
Meet the Expert
Jeni A. Stolow, PhD, MPH (she/her) is a social and behavioral scientist with over a decade of experience in public health, medical anthropology, and crisis response. Her work spans across health communication and community-based participatory research, with a specialized focus on risk communication and emergency preparedness. Dr. Stolow has contributed to global health efforts in over a dozen countries, collaborating with international partners, academic institutions, and local NGOs to advance equity-centered, sustainable public health interventions.
Throughout her career, Dr. Stolow has led and supported emergency response initiatives related to infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises. Dr. Stolow specializes in providing strategic guidance on risk communication and community engagement for both national and global health systems. She has served in key advisory and operational roles, contributing to capacity building, knowledge translation, and rapid response coordination in complex health contexts.
Currently, Dr. Stolow is a professor at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she teaches graduate and doctoral courses in social and behavioral health, research methods, public health pedagogy, and program design. She continues to partner with domestic and international stakeholders to enhance the resilience of health systems through workforce development and participatory research.
What You Can Expect
This course is self-paced and will take roughly two hours to complete. The interactive course components include:
- Pre- and post-course surveys. Completion of these two surveys is required. Your responses will help us better understand our audience and measure the impact of the course.
- Content videos. There are 11 videos with a total of about 1.5 hours of content to watch.
- Reflection exercises. After a few modules, take a moment to reflect on what you just heard and how you might apply it to your work.
- Knowledge checks. Most modules will have a short knowledge check after watching the related video to review concepts.
- Post-module surveys. At the end of each module, there will be an opportunity to provide feedback to help us improve the content and experience of the course.
To receive a digital certificate of completion, you will need to watch all the module videos, submit your reflection question responses, and score at least 75% on each knowledge check.
Let’s Get Started
To begin the course, click on the “pre-course survey” in the Course Content table below. If you have not yet registered for the course, click the “Take this Course” button located in the upper right corner, and then complete the pre-course survey.
Use the Course Content table below to track your progress and guide your next steps. The course content should be viewed and completed in the order shown. Click “Expand” to see the components of a module. When a course component (e.g., survey, module, etc.) is completed, the icon next to it will turn green.
At the start of each module, there will be a Module Content table to help you track your progress within that particular module. You can click “Back to Course” to come back to this page.
Course Content
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