Beth Hoffman, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of behavioral and community health sciences, and Janelle Christensen, PhD, MPH, project manager, Department of Medicine, were awarded a 2025-26 Public Engagement Content award from Research!America.
The $3,000 microgrant funded Hoffman and Christensen’s curriculum, training health science students to counter misinformation. Students, in partnership with the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, taught 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 also collaborated 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.”
Since receiving the Research!America award, Hoffman and Christensen have completed the project. After incorporating feedback from the Older Adult Community Engagement Studio, the team held two Train-the-Trainer sessions — training eight students in May and five more in a second remote session — who learned to deliver pre-bunking and debunking techniques, including the “truth sandwich” method, to combat misinformation and scams.
One trainee, medical student Sebastian Hymson, then piloted the curriculum with 15 older adults at Vanadium Woods Senior Living on June 10, 2026, alongside Christensen.
The project also connected with Pitt’s Vax Hub citizen science initiative, extending its reach to local public health leaders.
Behavioral and Community Health Sciences PhD student Tom Su and undergraduate Annabella Lapi (BSPH ’27, EPI ’28) assisted 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.
Hoffman and Christensen plan to continue training students and delivering the curriculum in senior living communities across the Pittsburgh area.
“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 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.
Research!America is a nonprofit medical and health research advocacy alliance that advocates for science, discovery and innovation to achieve better health for all. For more than 30 years, Research!America has commissioned 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