Beth Hoffman, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of behavioral and community health sciences, and Janelle Christensen, PhD, MPH, project manager, Department of Medicine, were recently awarded a 2025-26 Public Engagement Content award from Research!America.
The $3,000 microgrant will fund Hoffman and Christensen’s curriculum, training health science students to counter misinformation. Students, in partnership with the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, will teach seniors in the community these skills.
“This project grew out of shared concerns among a group of physicians, scientists and public health professionals involved in Pittsburgh Health Sciences Scholars,” said Christensen. “Many of us are worried about the spread of misinformation and the broader challenges facing public health.”
Hoffman said that while social media use is often associated with younger generations, a growing number of older adults are online or interacting with family and friends who are active on social platforms—making this population uniquely susceptible to misinformation.
To broaden the project's impact, Christensen and Hoffman are also collaborating with experts in fraud and scams, noting that older adults are frequently targeted by both medical misinformation and financial schemes.
“What's really great is that we’ll have a chance to not only deliver our curriculum to students but also have them go into senior living communities and see how it lands,” said Hoffman. “Then, the older adults who receive the training can teach their peers about it.” Currently, Behavioral and Community Health Sciences PhD student Tom Su and undergraduate Annabella Lapi (BSPH ’27, EPI ‘28) are assisting in curriculum development and researching background literature. Hoffman and Christensen expect to recruit additional students from across the six schools of the health sciences.
“It speaks to the infrastructure we have here, allowing an undergrad student to work directly with a PhD student and for him to be teaching and mentoring her. It's a fun project,” said Hoffman.
Research!America offers microgrants to support public engagement and training initiatives, particularly those focused on citizen science. This year’s eight awardees were selected from a competitive pool of 91 applicants.
“Ultimately, we hope to create a toolkit that can be used beyond our region, and Research!America will help amplify and distribute it once it’s finalized,” said Christensen.
Research!America is a non-profit medical and health research advocacy alliance which advocates for science, discovery and innovation to achieve better health for all. For over 30 years, Research!America has been commissioning surveys to help understand public support for medical, health and scientific research, among other state, national and global issues related to public health and research and innovation.
-Ava Dzurenda