Charlotte Hoffman Moser, MS, co-director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, will present this year’s Grace Kimball Memorial Lecture, “Science Communication: It’s Not Just About the Facts,” at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, in the Henry Student Center Ballroom. The lecture is free and open to the public.
People make decisions based on knowledge gained through science every day. But, sometimes getting scientific information to people when they need it and in a way that it is useful for them can be difficult. One example is vaccines — a choice that can keep someone healthy, but a technology that is not always well understood.
The lecture will examine the relationship between science and science communication and explore theories of cognitive processing, attitude change, risk and trust while considering the two sides of any communication — message receipt and message delivery.
Moser graduated from Wilkes University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. She earned a master’s degree in communication from Drexel University in 2022. Moser has spent her career working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she started as a lab supervisor and researcher in the fields of immunology and virology.
In 2000, she helped create the Vaccine Education Center, an educational outreach program, to address common vaccine safety concerns by presenting the science related to vaccines, immunology and infectious diseases in compelling and approachable ways. For more than two decades, the Vaccine Education Center has served as a national and international resource for those seeking answers about vaccines.
In response to COVID-19, Moser conceived and oversaw development of a dedicated webpage related to COVID-19 vaccines, www.COVIDVaccineAnswers.org, which continues to be updated as needed to address the public’s questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
Moser has been a contributing author on numerous scientific papers and is the co-author of a book about vaccines for parents titled “Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction.” A newer version of this book is currently being written and will include vaccine information for family members of all ages.
The Kimball Lecture is named for Grace Kimball, former professor of microbiology at Wilkes. Lecturers are chosen by the Wilkes University biology faculty as scientists who have distinguished themselves in evolutionary biology.
