LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 2, 2026) — The 19th biennial Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC) is coming soon, and this year’s conference 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,” is 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. 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.
KCHC 2026 will feature competitive paper, poster and panel sessions, as well as workshops on translating and disseminating health communication research and designing persuasive messages. Topics span health equity, policy communication, community engagement, global health and emerging public health challenges.
The program includes the work of 708 authors representing 182 organizations across 38 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, as well as 17 countries: Bangladesh, China, Ecuador, England, Ghana, Greece, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Scotland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
Approximately 300 attendees are expected, including faculty members and graduate students from academic institutions and disciplines nationwide, as well as health care providers, practitioners and representatives from government, nonprofit and private organizations.
The conference will conclude Saturday afternoon with an awards luncheon, during which the recipient of the 2026 KCHC Lewis Donohew Outstanding Scholar in Health Communication Award, Andy King, Ph.D., will be honored.
King is a professor in the Department of Communication and the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) 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.
He has received funding from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture.
The award is named in honor of Lewis Donohew, Ph.D., 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.
Awards also will be presented for top poster, top student paper, top early-career scholar paper and top conference paper.
Early-bird registration rates are available through March 13. UK faculty, staff and students are eligible for a discounted rate, along with single-day registration options. The full conference program is available online.
Funding for KCHC is made possible in part by support from the UK Office of the Vice President for Research, the College of Communication and Information and the Department of Communication.
Visit the KCHC website to learn more about the conference.