Our Audiences

We write content for a variety of audiences, but our primary audiences are people with asthma and allergic conditions and their caregivers.

To support our primary audiences, we often create content for groups who work with people with asthma and allergies. These audiences include:

• Health care providers for patients with asthma and allergic conditions
• Teachers, school staff, and child care workers
• Community health workers
• Researchers and experts in allergy and immunology
• Policymakers and stakeholders

AAFA’s Content Guidelines

We value accurate and helpful educational content that empowers people to successfully manage their conditions. We create content that is evidence-based  and follows current clinical guidelines.

Our staff produces content on a variety of topics related to asthma and allergies. These areas include clinical education, lifestyle and condition management, policy and advocacy, and research. We aim for content that has a 4^th– to 8^th– grade reading level and is written using principles of health literacy. We aim to update our medical and educational content every 2 years as possible.

We work very hard to make sure our content is grammatically, stylistically, and clinically correct. We follow our in-house style guide with influence from the National Institutes of Health Style Guide and the Associated Press Stylebook. But we are human, and humans can make mistakes. If you notice errors on our websites or in our content, please contact us.  We will do our best to fix it in a timely manner.

AAFA’s Editors, Writers, and Reviewers

Many of our staff members write our content based on their areas of expertise. It is then reviewed by our content manager and/or a member of senior leadership. If it involves health information, it is reviewed by a member of our Medical Scientific Council – a group of experts in allergy and immunology who advise us on our content.

We also translate many of our educational pieces into Spanish using a medical translation company, which is reviewed by a fluent Spanish-speaking member of our Medical Scientific Council.

Our Editorial Team:

• Melanie Carver, Chief Mission Officer, editor-in-chief
• Tanya Bumgardner, Community Director, content editor, writer, and manager
• Andy Spears, Public Affairs Manager, editor and writer
• Kimberly Rafferty, Marketing and Communications Production Director, contributing editor
• Sanaz Eftekhari, Chief Business Development Officer and Vice President of Research, contributing editor and writer
• Hannah Jaffee, Research Manager, contributing writer
• Nicole Gaghan, Creative Director, contributing editor
• Moe Moyer, Community Outreach Specialist, contributing editor and creative
• Zulema Chavez, Support Center Manager, contributing editor
• Symone Peri, Programs Administrator, contributing creative
• Jenna Riemenschneider, Vice President of Advocacy and Policy, contributing editor and writer
• John M. James, MD, Medical Specialist, contributing editor, writer, and reviewer

We do not accept submissions from guest writers at this time.

Our Commitment to Transparency

We put the needs and best interests of our audiences first. This, along with our mission and values, drives our content.

We maintain full editorial control over all of our content, even sponsored content. We receive donations from private and corporate donors to cover content on certain topics, but we still control what we write about. Donors do not have the right to review or change our content.

Content Licensing

AAFA’s content is copyrighted.

Some of our content is available to use and share under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND which means the content can be distributed in unadapted form only, for noncommercial use, and attribution is required.

For commercial use of our content, or if you want to adapt our content, or are unsure if you can use our content, please submit a license request for our review. We do offer limited licensing of our content. Examples include:

• Embedding our action plans into electronic medical records
• Co-branding educational programs
• Sharing our recipes or articles in a magazine

Our Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We do not use AI to write our content. All of our content is written and edited by humans. We may use AI tools on occasion for administrative purposes.