Kentucky Health News
The 19th biennial Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC) will examine one of the most pressing global questions of our time: how communication shapes health as a human right.
The 2026 conference, “Health as a Human Right: The Role of Health Communication,” will be held April 2-4 at the Hyatt Regency Lexington.
The conference will open with a keynote address by Sofia Gruskin, an internationally renowned authority on health equity and human rights, according to a University of Kentucky news release. Her address, “Current Concerns at the Intersection of Health, Law, and Human Rights: From the Local to the Global,” will explore how legal frameworks, public policy and communication strategies intersect to influence health outcomes worldwide.
Conference topics will span health equity, policy communication, community engagement, global health and emerging public health challenges.
The conference will conclude Saturday afternoon with an awards luncheon, during which Andy King, the recipient of the 2026 KCHC Lewis Donohew Outstanding Scholar in Health Communication Award, will be honored.
King is a professor in the Department of Communication and the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. His research centers on health and cancer communication, focusing on strategic content and message design, navigating the public health communication environment and visual persuasion.
The award is named in honor of Donohew, who served on the faculty in the University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information’s Department of Communication from 1964 to 1999. The award recognizes scholars whose research has made significant contributions to the field of health communication.
Visit the KCHC website to learn more about the conference and to register.
