Rachael Piltch-Loeb

Dr. Piltch-Loeb’s work focuses on research, measurement, and evaluation of public health emergency preparedness and response and how to more effectively engage the public during public health emergencies. Dr. Piltch-Loeb has focused her work on a broad range of emergencies especially those related to climate change such infectious pathogens and natural disasters, as well as environmental hazards, and manmade disasters. Although diverse in nature such events all have in common similar research challenges, such as understanding what segments of the population are most vulnerable to the threat, and how specific agencies and systems can work together to prepare for and respond to these events to protect health and wellbeing. She has authored academic articles, many with students and practitioners, that including outlining measurement frameworks to improve public health emergency preparedness, cross-jurisdictional after-action reviews to identify lessons learned from emergency response, tools for community engagement in preparedness and response, and assessment of misinformation and communication campaigns. Dr. Piltch-Loeb is dedicated to the translation of research to practice and dissemination efforts. She has served on committees established by the National Academies of Science and Medicine as well as the World Health Organization and European Centers for Disease Control. She is a founder of the IRIS Academic Coalition, a research group dedicated to understanding infodemics and promoting healthy information ecosystems and a contributor to Dear Pandemic, a female- led science communication platform that emerged during the pandemic. She also maintains an appointment with the Emergency Preparedness Research Evaluation and Practice Program (EPREP) at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health.