Staff Bio
Nora Barnett, MSLIS, AHIP
Health Professionals Outreach Specialist, Region 6
Nora Barnett is the Health Professions Outreach Specialist at Network of the National Library of Medicine, Region 6. She helps health professionals, public health departments, and community based organizations increase organizational health literacy and meet the health information needs of their communities. Nora organizes webinars featuring guest speakers that offer continuing education to nurses and health educators. She developed and teaches the courses Health Literacy On-Demand, Prescription & Over the Counter Drugs, and Effective Health Communication and Health Literacy: Understanding the Connection.
Classes I Teach
| Event Title | Summary |
|---|---|
| A Provider’s Perspective on Building High Quality Cancer Care Programs in Rural Areas | Part 3 of the Improving Cancer Care for Rural Communities series features Dr. Daniel Kollmorgen, Surgical Oncologist and Medical Director of Oncology Services at Mahaska Hospital in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Drawing from his own experience, Dr. Kollmorgen will speak about building high quality care in rural areas, including strategies for achieving CoC accreditation and fostering a culture of quality improvement. This webinar will offer insights for professionals seeking to enhance the quality and coordination of cancer care in rural communities. |
| Addressing Rural Cancer Care Through a Network Model | Rural communities face significant challenges in cancer care, including limited access to specialists, fragmented care coordination, and a lack of infrastructure to support evidence-based treatment and quality monitoring. Guest speaker Aaron Seaman will offer insights into how the Iowa Cancer Affiliate Network (I-CAN) addresses these gaps through a collaborative and scalable model that strengthens rural hospitals’ capacity to deliver evidence-based, high-quality care. Part one of a three-part webinar series. |
| Advancing Evidence-Based Interventions in Rural Communities (Rescheduled) | The Putting Public Health Evidence in Action training, originally created by the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network, helps health practitioners and program planners apply evidence-based approaches. Learn about an adaptation for rural and micrometropolitan communities created by University of Iowa Prevention Research Center for Rural Health. This webinar will summarize key points from the six training modules, highlight rural examples of the principles in action, and introduce the accompanying activities and resources. |
| Endocrine Disruptors in Environmental Health | Learn about the phenomenon of endocrine disruption, the inference of normal hormonal processes in the human endocrine system by chemicals and pollutants in our environment. Participants will learn about historical discoveries and recent scientific findings. Guest speaker: Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH |
| Environmental Chemicals and Breast Cancer: What Do We Know? What Can We Do? | Join guest speaker Julia Brody, director of Silent Spring Institute, to (1) review the science on how everyday chemical exposures can influence breast cancer risk, (2) identify resources to help people reduce their exposures by taking simple actions as individuals and community members, and (3) learn how misleading information, including from sources that people expect to be reliable, can play into industry’s dismissive strategies. |
| From Words to Wellness: Exploring the Impact of Expressive Writing | Expressive writing has been shown to have many benefits for those facing chronic and serious illness. Guest speaker April Stearns, founder of Wildfire magazine, will discuss the how expressive writing can be helpful in healing and share her experience translating the science about expressive writing into a writing program for young people with breast cancer. Participants will learn about the history of expressive writing in healing, expressive writing's role in physical healing, and how expressive writing interventions lead to improved outcomes. |
| Health Literacy On-Demand | Learn about health literacy definitions, best practices, tools for communicating health information clearly, and resources for improving health literacy. This on-demand narrated tutorial takes about an hour to complete. It offers CHES, CNE, and MLA credit. |
| Implementing Scalable Exercise Interventions to Address Supportive Care Disparities in Rural Cancer Survivors | Cancer survivors in rural areas face unique challenges in accessing supportive care, including structured exercise programs that are proven to improve physical function, mental health, and quality of life. Dr. Jess Gorzelitz leads research focused on implementing and evaluating a distance-based, strength-focused exercise intervention tailored for older, rural cancer survivors. In this webinar she will discuss existing disparities in access to exercise oncology resources and the use of remote exercise programs to inform long-term behavior change. Learn how scalable, evidence-based exercise interventions can be integrated into survivorship care. |
| NNLM Book Discussion What the Eyes Don't See by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha (February 1 - April 30, 2025) | Join us February 1 - April 30, 2025 to discuss the book What the Eyes Don't See by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. |
| Prescription and Over the Counter Drugs: Supporting Patients with Evidence-Based Information | This 1 credit hour on-demand course provides an introduction to three free resources from the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health: The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) website, DailyMed and LactMed. |
Contact Information
last updated: 10/21/25 12:02