





































       V38 N3 / 2023 

©2023 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     40

The Walter C. Alvarez Award is bestowed on a member or nonmember of AMWA 
to recognize excellence in communicating health care developments and concepts 
to the public.

As chair of the 2023 Annual Conference Committee, I have the honor of bestow-
ing this year's Walter C. Alvarez Award upon Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH.
 Like many of us, Dr Jetelina discovered her love for writing and for shar-
ing scientific concepts with the public almost by accident. In 2020, during the 
COVID-19 pandemic, she worked as a senior scientific consultant at Meadows 
Mental Health Policy Institute, a nonpartisan health policy think tank, and she 
also consulted with several organizations, including the US Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention.
 But at night, after her children went to sleep, Dr Jetelina started writing 
about public health science. Her passionate work to bridge the communication 
gaps between the public, patients, doctors, and researchers led to a newsletter 
to help ordinary people be "well equipped to make evidence-based decisions."
 And what started as a side hustle driven by passion and compassion 
grew over the next 3 years. Dr Jetelina's Substack publication, "Your Local 
Epidemiologist," now reaches more than 190,000 subscribers in 126 countries.
 Now renowned for translating public health science into everyday language, 
Dr Jetelina is taking a break from her scientific work. She is focusing full-time on 
processing and translating scientific knowledge for the public.
 Dr Jetelina's newsletter topics range from infectious diseases and vaccines 
to reproductive health and violence to mental health and public health emer-
gencies. The thread that runs through them all is her clear explanation of statis-
tical analysis that transforms the profound scientific ideas into understandable 
chunks of information and actionable suggestions.
 Please join me in congratulating Dr Jetelina, our Walter C. Alvarez award 
winner, and listening to her talk on Saturday, October 28, at the 2023 Medical 
Writing & Communication Conference in Baltimore.

Author declaration and disclosures: The author notes no commercial associations 
that may pose a conflict of interest in relation to this article.

Author contact: Michele@SequeiraMedicalWriting.com 

Michele W. Sequeira, MS, MBA, MWC / 2023 Annual Conference Committee Chair

2023 Walter C. Alvarez Award Recipient  
Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH

AMWA NEWS

Dr Jetelina's newsletter 
topics range from 
infectious diseases and 
vaccines to reproductive 
health and violence to 
mental health and public 
health emergencies. 

http://www.amwajournal.org
https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/archive



