Stigma is a powerful human experience that causes suffering and worsens health outcomes. This training focuses on helping healthcare and public health professionals recognize and challenge stigma in practice. In the first section, we explain what stigma is, how it feels, and how to recognize it. In the second section, we explore the ways stigma is entangled in the practices and assumptions of healthcare professionals, often unwittingly. In the final section, participants learn practical strategies to recognize and reduce stigma, with the goal of improving patient outcomes and advancing population health.

Learning Objectives: 

By the end of this training learners will be able to:

• Identify different forms of stigma and explain why they emerge and persist.

• Explore the personal experience of stigma and evaluate your own stigmatizing attitudes. 

• Recognize the signs and impacts of stigma in health care and public settings.

• Identify solutions to reducing stigma.

Format: Self-paced training (work at your own pace, use "save and exit" as needed).

Target Audience: Public Health Professionals including community health workers, doctors, nurses, social workers, dietitians, and health educators.

Duration: Approximately 2 hours

Disclosures:  The planners, reviewers, and authors have no declared conflicts of interest 

Narration: This training includes narration generated using AI voice technology (WellSaid)

Published: 2020; updated 4/2026

Authors: Alexandra Brewis-Slade, PhD; Amber Wutich, PhD; with input from Carrie Ann Langley, PhD, DNP, MPH, PMHNP-BC, Allison Root, DrPH, RDN, MCHES

Arranged by: Allison Root, DrPH, RDN, MCHES, Instructional Specialist

Alexandra Brewis, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. She founded the Center for Global Health at Arizona State University in 2006, is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and has served as president of the Human Biology Association. Particularly concerned with how culture, health, and human biology collide, she has conducted field research across the globe, addressing such topics as infertility, depression, malnutrition, obesity, and stigma. 

Amber Wutich, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, where she directs the Center for Global Health. Concerned with the cultural institutions that make us sick and keep us well, her research focuses on basic human challenges like water insecurity, food insecurity, and anxiety. Wutich was selected as Carnegie CASE Arizona Professor of the Year in 2014, in recognition of an outstanding career as a university educator. 

Their most recent book together is “Lazy, Crazy, and Disgusting: Stigma and the Undoing of Global Health” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).

CE Available: 

• Continuing Education Contact Hours for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES): This program is designated for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES®) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES®) to receive up to 2.0 total Category I continuing education contact hours (2.0 Continuing Competency Credits). WRPHTC provider number 99036.
• Continuing Professional Education Units for Dietitians (CPEUs): As a Jointly Accredited Organization, the WRPHTC is approved to offer continuing professional education units by the Commission on Dietetic Registration. The WRPHTC designates this activity for 2.0 contact hours for dietitians. Dietitians should enter activities as type 102 on their Activity Log.
• 2.0 ANCC credit for Nurses

Accreditation Statements


The WRPHTC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
 

The WRPHTC is a Designated Multiple Event Provider of Continuing Education Contact Hours (CECH) for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.