Alexa McCray and fellow members of a Committee on Science Literacy and Public Perception of Science recently published the results of their evidence-based consensus study, which was conducted on behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. McCray was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly IOM) in 2001 and chosen for this committee in 2015.
The committee's report, entitled Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences, responded to a charge from the National Institutes of Health to examine the role of science literacy in attitudes toward and public support for science, and its relationship to health literacy and health-related behaviors.
“This new Academy report challenges the traditional view that science literacy is solely the property of an individual and argues instead that structural and other aspects of the larger society play an equally important role,” said McCray. “The report proposes an ambitious and exciting research agenda that studies the implications of this expanded definition of science literacy.”