Jessica Malaty Rivera is an infectious disease epidemiologist and award-winning science communicator. She earned her MS in Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Georgetown School of Medicine and has dedicated the last 20 years of her career to emerging disease surveillance, public health policy, and vaccine advocacy. Her specialty is in translating complex scientific concepts into impactful, judgement-free, and accessible information for diverse audiences. From 2020-2021, she served as the Science Communication Lead for The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. She was also the host of the Peabody-nominated COVID Tracking Project podcast, in partnership with Reveal.
Currently, she is a Research Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator, a Research Fellow and DrPH student at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Health Security, and a Senior Advisor at the deBeaumont Foundation. Jessica dedicates several hours a week to promoting science literacy and debunking misinformation on social media. You can follow her work on Instagram (@jessicamalatyrivera) and on Substack (@makingsciencemakesense).
