The Office of Public Scholarship and the School of Public Health co-sponsored a visit by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, a leading public health communicator, on November 12, 2025.
Jetelina, an epidemiologist and founder of the highest-ranked science Substack, “Your Local Epidemiologist” (YLE), spoke to the WashU and St. Louis community about her journey from academia to public science communication. Throughout the day, she emphasized the necessity of trust-building, listening, and courage in developing effective messaging.
Chris Schaberg, WashU’s Director of Public Scholarship, said that Jetelina’s visit was a motivating prompt for bridging the gaps between academic research and public audiences.
“I was inspired listening to Dr. Jetelina speak about the need for ‘more imagination at this moment,’” Schaberg said. “We shouldn’t shy away from the challenge of rethinking how we, as academics, can effectively communicate our work.”
This theme of imagining new ways to bring research to society was a cornerstone of Jetelina’s various speaking engagements on campus.
In a session with a group of faculty members, Jetelina discussed her approach to growing an audience on Substack and strategies for engaging with skeptical readers.
Mary Politi, co-director of WashU’s Center for Collaborative Care Decisions, attended the faculty session and said she appreciated learning from Jetelina’s experience in communicating to such a wide audience.
“I will be referring back to her relatable and concrete advice about acknowledging uncertainty, actively listening, and showing the human behind the public health data in my own work,” Politi said.
Jetelina also delivered a keynote address on ‘Bringing Science to Society’ and participated in a discussion with Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health. The event drew an audience of more than 100 people in person, with over 700 viewers joining online.
Throughout her address, Jetelina emphasized the significance of health leaders communicating with the public frequently and through a human-centered approach.
“People don’t need more data and more facts,” she said. “They need storytellers, they need narrators, and they need navigators.”
“People don’t need more data and more facts,” she said. “They need storytellers, they need narrators, and they need navigators.”
Adia Wingfield, Co-Executive Director of the Office of Public Scholarship, echoed Jetelina’s call for reimagining the role of scholarship in her closing remarks.
“We’re at a moment in time, as Dr. Jetelina underscored, where this idea of facilitating trust, building trust, or rebuilding trust from universities outward is really critical,” Wingfield said. “It has maybe never been underscored, in this current way, how fragile that trust is and how important it is for members of universities to be able to make those communications and make those connections to larger audiences.”
Wingfield added that the work of the Office of Public Scholarship is grounded in an ethos aligned with Jetelina’s approach to science communication.
“Our Office of Public Scholarship really draws from the principles that Dr. Jetelina outlined: making real connections and building trust; being able to be brave; and reimagining new ideas of communicating for the public good,” she said.