Dana Ladd, Ph.D.

Dana L. Ladd, Ph.D, has more than 22 years of experience as a librarian. She first became interested in consumer health when she worked in a public library environment. There, she held consumer health collection development responsibilities and was responsible for the library’s cancer center website.  Now an associate professor at VCU working at the Health Sciences Library, she is the Health and Wellness  Librarian.

In that role, Ladd manages the daily operations of the library, supervises and trains staff, provides consumer health information services for patients, their family members, and the public, and teaches health information classes. She also plans and coordinates health and wellness events and presentations and coordinates the center’s participation in local and community health fairs. Ladd teaches the elective, Providing Health Information to Patients for fourth year VCU School of Medicine students and supervises and mentors student interns. 

Ladd has an extensive record of scholarship and most notably co-authored “A Medical Library Association Guide to Diabetes Information and Resources.” The book received a Library Journal Starred review. She also authored several journal articles and a book chapter titled, “What Patients Need to Know: Information Needs and Sources of Patients with Rare Cancer” in the Textbook of Uncommon Cancer. She has presented at state, regional, and national library conferences and is active in the Medical Library Association.

In 2020, she served as the chair of the Medical Library Association’s Consumer and Patient Health Information Services Caucus. She currently serves as their clinical support domain hub delegate.

Ladd's doctoral dissertation focused on the information needs and information sources of patients diagnosed with rare cancers. 

Her interests include: consumer health information provision, health literacy and plain language, information needs of patients with rare diseases, and evaluating consumer health information/identifying misinformation.

Ph.D in Social and Behavioral Science, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Specialist Degree in Library and Information Science in Health Sciences and Consumer Health Information, the University of South Carolina
M.S. in Information Science, the University of Tennessee

• Medical Library Association, Consumer Health Information Specialist Certificate, Level 2
• Tufts University School of Medicine, Plain Language for Health Certificate, 2021 

Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Science, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Specialist Degree in Library and Information Science in Health Sciences and Consumer Health Information, the University of South Carolina
M.S. in Information Science, the University of Tennessee