Heather Hensler

PhD, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology

Global Scientific Communications Lead - COVID and RSV, Moderna Therapeutics

she/her

Heather Hensler, PhD – Speaker Bio

Current position: Global Scientific Communications Lead – COVID and RSV, Moderna Therapeutics

Previous positions: Northwestern University Post-doctoral fellow, Medical Science Liaison (Novartis/GSK vaccines), US Field Medical Director (Moderna)

Current position description: My role involves setting the scientific communication plan for Moderna’s COVID and RSV vaccines and delivering all of the content that the field medical teams use to have conversations with healthcare professionals. As someone who thought they would be an academic researcher, my career path ended up quite different than I originally believed. But things turned out better than I could have imagined – I am in a job I am passionate about and get to use my scientific training in a way that makes a difference to the world.

Advice for trainees: Be flexible in your career path. You don’t always know what opportunities will come your way and the path you thought you would take may not be the right one for you in the end.