Seven Impactful Books on Communications Health Officials Should Read Front to Back

March 31, 2023 | Keith Coleman, Cristi Moore

Whether you’re new to public health or a veteran, life-long learning improves your leadership capacity, professional aspirations, and communication skills. To be effective leaders, we should continue to explore, learn, grow, and encourage others to do the same.

Over the course of the past three years, we have read articles, books, journals, and research about the COVID-19 pandemic, public health, and crisis communication. These intriguing reads show how effective communication can improve trust, respect, and accountability. The selections below focus on a range of topics including crisis, issue and reputation management, legislative reforms and the future of public health response, and how to effectively manage the message, the media, and yourself.

Recommended Crisis Communication Reads for Health Officials

1. The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times by Joshua M. Sharfstein. In his book, Sharfstein examines the role of public health officials in crises and gives tips for leading and thriving in the most difficult circumstances. The guide also offers advice on how health officials can inspire the next generation of public health students and practitioners.
2. A Communications Playbook for Public Officials: How to Effectively Manage the Message, the Media, and Yourself by Robert R. Johnson and Michael Fraser. This playbook offers a retrospective on COVID-19 and the need for public health officials to pivot to different messages as the pandemic progressed to new heights. To help state health officials prepare for public communications, Fraser and Johnson provide tips for regaining the public’s trust and confidence, and improving communication and media relations.
3. Talking Health: A New Way to Communicate About Public Health by Mark R. Miller, Brian C. Castrucci, Rachel Locke, Julia Haskins, and Grace A. Castillo. The authors share their perspectives on the current state of public health communication and why leaders must do more to engage policymakers, the media, and the public in robust conversations about the challenges and opportunities of public health. They also provide readers with tools to avoid message backfire, answer challenging questions, reframe public health assumptions, and draw on the power of anecdotes while sharing important data.
4. Crisis Emergency Risk Communication Manual by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CERC manual is a repository of crisis and emergency risk communication trainings, tools, and resources to help health officials, public information officers and health communicators, and emergency responders communicate effectively and efficiently during a public health crisis. This is a free resource.
5. Vaccinating America: The Inside Story Behind the Race to Save Lives, and End a Pandemic by Michael Fraser and Brent Ewig. ASTHO CEO Fraser and Ewig of the Association of Immunization Managers give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the masked and amplified crisis to vaccinate Americans amid partisan divide, bureaucracy, and legal challenges. Vaccinating America emphasizes the need for coordinated public health messages and collaboration with diverse stakeholders.
6. Building Theory in Political Communication: The Politics-Media-Politics Approach by Gadi Wolfsfeld, Tamir Sheafer, and Scott Althaus. The authors examine communication from a political lens and how the media influences political outcomes. Started in 2013 as a book project, the authors highlight the role of communication in U.S. democracy.
7. The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. In this hardcover, illustrated book, Garcia and Miralles reminds us that life is impermanent and encourage readers to embrace every interaction with others with intention, mindfulness, and ceremony.

One for the Road

Here’s a timely and relevant article to add to your list: Emergency Powers and the Pandemic: Reflecting on State Legislative Reforms and the Future of Public Health Response. In this piece, authors Maggie Davis, Lauren Dedon, Stacey Hoffman, Andy Baker-White, David Engleman, and Gregory Sunshine discuss the use of emergency powers by governors and state health officials. They uncover several themes including the enhancement and restriction of powers, emerging from emergency management and public health legislation introduced in state and territorial legislatures.

While this is not meant to be an all-encompassing list, we recommend that you read each selection from front to back—they’re just that good! We enjoyed them and we hope you will, too.