People
Faculty
Dolores J. Severtson, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Joint Degree in Nursing and Land Resources
MS, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Community Health Nursing
MS, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Land Resources
BS, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh; Nursing
BS, Iowa State University; Biology, Secondary Education
Office Location: H6/236 CSC
Telephone: (608) 263-5311
E-mail: djsevert@wisc.edu
Lori Severtson studies how household and community-level environmental health risk information is related to beliefs and behavior, and how that information is understood within a context of sensory experiences. For example, she has studied how drinking water test results influence beliefs and risk mitigation behavior within a context of perceptions of the taste, smell, and appearance of drinking water. Professor Severtson is particularly interested in how visual images; including maps, can be used to convey meaningful data-based and user-centered information to broad audiences. Two of her recent studies show that a visual image of a laboratory test result for household drinking water from a private well was related to more appropriate safety beliefs and mitigation intentions compared to a standard alphanumeric version. Current work includes: 1) exploring how community-level map information of well water test results shapes risk beliefs, affect, and behavioral intentions and 2) participating in a multi-stakeholder planning process to identify information technology strategies for increasing public access to user-centered well water information.
Representative Publications
Porter, E. & Severtson, D. (1997). Indicators of possible lead exposure among children attending public lead screening clinics: Implications for primary prevention. Public Health Nursing, 14(1), 12-19.
Porter, E. & Severtson, D. (2000). Potential effectiveness of parents' actions to reduce children's lead exposure. Journal of Pediatric Nursing 15(5), 282-291
Severtson, D. J., Baumann, L.C., & Will, J.A. (2002). A participatory assessment of environmental health concerns in an Ojibwa community. Public Health Nursing 19(1), 47-58.
Severtson, D. J., Baumann, L.C., Shepard, R.L. (2005). A Utilization-Focused and Theory-based Evaluation of an Arsenic Well Testing Program. Poster session paper at the 2004 Best Education Practices (BEP) for Water Outreach Professionals Symposium. Paper available at: http://wateroutreach.uwex.edu/documents/Severtsonfinalpaper5_05.pdf
Severtson, D. J. (2005). Applying the common sense model to understand responses to arsenic risk. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Kossman, S., Casper, G. R., Severtson, D. J., Grenier, A. S., Or, C., Carayon, P., Brennan, P. F. (2006). Designing study nurses' training to enhance research integrity: A macroergonomic approach. Proceedings of the 9th Annual meeting of the American Medical Informatics Association. Washington DC. November 10 - 14, 2006.
Severtson, D. J., Baumann, L. C., & Brown, R. L. (2006). Applying a health behavior theory to explore the influence of information and experience on arsenic risk representations, policy beliefs, and protective behavior. Risk Analysis, 26(2), 353-368.
Brennan P. F., Burke L., Casper G., Sebern M., Krause C., Kossman S., Severtson D., Murphy J. (2006). Creating technology-enhanced practice: A university-home care-corporate alliance. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 2006:122: 644-648.
Severtson, D .J., Pape, L., Page, C. D., Jr., Shavlik, J., Phillips, G. N., Jr., Brennan, P. F. (2007). Biomedical Informatics Training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. C.A. Kulikowski (Ed.) IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2007. Stuggart, Germany: Schattauer Verlag.
Severtson, D. J., Baumann, L. C., Brown, R. L. (2008). Applying the common sense model to understand representations of arsenic contaminated well water. Journal of Health Communication, 13, 538-554.
Severtson D. J., Henriques J. The effect of graphics on environmental health risk beliefs, emotions, behavioral intentions and recall: Exploring visual risk communication to promote meaningful comprehension. Risk Analysis, 2009;29(11):1549-1565.
Severtson D. J., Burt J. E. (in press). The influence of mapped hazards on risk beliefs: A proximity-based modeling approach. Risk Analysis, Prepublished (available at Risk Analysis - Early View).
Severtson D. J., Vatovec C. (in press). The theory-based influence of map features on risk beliefs: Self-reports of what is seen and understood for maps depicting an environmental health hazard. Journal of Health Communication.
Selected Awards and Honors
Wisconsin Nurses Association, Lillian Mood Environmental Health Nursing Award, 2011
Society for Risk Analysis, Best Conference Poster Award, 2010
Society for Risk Analysis, Risk Communication Specialty Group, Best Poster Award, 2009