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Jess Atwell, PhD ’16, MPH ’11 

Global Scientific Affairs and Epidemiology Lead for Maternal and Pediatric RSV vaccines
Pfizer

Jess Atwell, an IH alumna and former faculty member, took some time to discuss her career and time at Hopkins. Jess first completed an MPH at the Bloomberg School with a certificate in vaccine science and policy in 2011. Then she started her PhD in the Department’s Global Disease Epidemiology and Control program. After earning her doctorate, she became a full-time Department faculty member. In 2021, she went to Pfizer, where she’s now working on a new maternal RSV vaccine.

In addition to her own career and academic experiences, Jess shares some advice for current and prospective students. She also tells us why PAVE—the Program in Applied Vaccine Experiences—is one of the accomplishments she’s most proud of from her tenure at Hopkins. PAVE supports vaccine-focused internships for Johns Hopkins students at international organizations that play critical roles in global vaccine policy and delivery. 

You did your PhD in GDEC, focusing on vaccines. Can you tell me more about what you studied? 

I researched transplacental transfer of RSV antibodies from mothers to their infants in utero (which is the natural process that vaccination in pregnancy can leverage to provide additional protection against infectious diseases to infants in early life) and factors that could impair that process. The research was conducted in Papua New Guinea. I also studied the seasonality of respiratory viruses in equatorial regions and worked to help define and evaluate clinical trial case definitions for RSV using datasets from Argentina.

Between my MPH and PhD, I also did an internship at Gavi. I worked with the monitoring and evaluation team to help calculate potential deaths averted from Gavi-supported immunization, assess cold chain system capacity, and readiness for new vaccine introduction. It was so interesting to see how an international organization like Gavi works from the inside. It made what I was learning in my courses about vaccine policy and delivery at JHU come alive and changed the trajectory of my career.

Can you tell me about some of your highlights as a faculty member in the department? 

I thoroughly enjoyed working in International Health and with my colleagues at the Center for Indigenous Health and the Center for Immunization Research. I am proud of a lot of things from my time at Hopkins, but honestly, PAVE is at the top of the list. PAVE—the Program in Applied Vaccine Experiences—is the internship program that Dr. Ruth Karron, my advisor and mentor, and I developed. It was inspired in part by my internship at GAVI. There was an earlier internship program that sent students to the WHO, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals department. PAVE expanded and reimagined the program to also include Gavi, UNICEF, PAHO, and the CDC. In the first five years of PAVE, we supported over 40 internships for JHU students.

To see how PAVE has focused the academic and professional paths of so many incredible students—the vast majority of whom are still working in vaccines—it’s hard to put into words. It means the world to me that I could play a small but important part in helping launch so many bright, capable, and driven people into important roles in vaccines.

What’s your current role at Pfizer?

My focus is on studying the real-world effectiveness of the first built-for-purpose maternal vaccine, ABRYSVO, which is given to pregnant women to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in their infants. We’re setting up studies in multiple countries around the world, including the U.S., Argentina, the U.K., Australia, Uruguay, and more. It’s a lot of work, but it’s incredibly interesting and rewarding! After 60 years of research, the fact that we finally have a vaccine for RSV—the leading cause of lower respiratory tract disease in infants—is incredible.

What would you like to focus on in the future? 

I hope to busy myself for at least the next decade studying how well this vaccine is working in the real world, and helping to understand and quantify the short-, medium- and long-term benefits of RSV prevention on the health of infants and children, to support introduction and access to as many mothers and their infants around the world as possible, including in LMICs. Now, more than ever, it’s important to show how incredible vaccines are, and quantify and describe the positive impact they have globally. 

Any advice to current and future students

When it comes to choosing a thesis project, follow what you’re passionate about, but don’t underestimate the importance of a good fit between you and your advisor, especially if you’re a PhD student. That relationship will be extremely important for your overall experience.

• Depth is important, but so is breadth. I always worried that having worked across too many different aspects of the vaccine development timeline (from basic science to clinical trials to cold chains) wasn’t ideal, but that breadth of experience has helped me more times than I can count in my studies and my career. I’m grateful for it every day.
• Be open to new paths and opportunities that come your way. I never thought I would end up working in industry, but I’m glad I took the leap to come to Pfizer. This has turned out to be an incredibly fulfilling job for me over the last four years, and I feel like I’m able to contribute to launching this vaccine in direct and important ways that go far beyond what I could have done elsewhere. And there’s something to be said for being able to advocate for public health priorities from within industry. I’m grateful to bring my global health perspective and experiences to the work that I do.
• Embrace the challenges. There will be many setbacks, complications, and even failures. Part of the grad school process is learning how to navigate the hard parts of research (with help from those who’ve been through it all before). Learning how to problem solve is part of the process. Navigating difficulty is part of what you’re at Hopkins to learn. Keeping that mindset makes the challenges easier.

When I was just starting my PhD, a fourth-year told me the following (and I didn’t really understand what she meant until I was in her shoes): It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be done. This is not the pinnacle of your academic achievement or the best thing you will ever do. This is only the beginning—it’s onward and upward from here!

May 22, 2025

The Q&A was conducted and edited by Brandon Howard, Communications Manager for the Department of International Health at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.