Lori Severtson, PhD, RN

Education
BS, 1976, Biology, Iowa State University
BS, 1995, Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
MS, 2000, Land Resources, UW-Madison
MS, 2000, Community Health Nursing, UW-Madison
PhD, 2004 Nursing and Land Resources, UW-Madison

Research
Professor 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. Dr. 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.

Publications
PubMed Listing of Publications