Teri
Place of Residence: Tualatin, Oregon
Teri is a tenacious, action-oriented grandmother with over 40 years of nursing experience. As a founding member of the nonprofit Grandparents For Vaccines, Teri combines her unwavering vaccine advocacy with genuine concern for people and families.
Read Teri’s story below.
How did your advocacy journey begin?
My personal journey with vaccination began long before I became a vaccine advocate. As a long-time nurse educator and public health professional, I have spent my career caring for children, families, and communities. I have seen what happens when infectious diseases take hold, and I have also seen the extraordinary difference vaccines can make.
Vaccination has never been an abstract public health issue to me. Vaccines are one of the greatest tools we have to protect children and the people who love them. Throughout my career, I have watched generations of children benefit from vaccines that prevent diseases that once caused tremendous suffering, disability, and death. I learned early in my nursing career that prevention is one of the most powerful things we can do.
My belief in the importance of vaccines became even stronger during the COVID-19 pandemic. I served as a Medical Reserve Corps volunteer and worked in vaccination clinics in my community, helping thousands of people gain access to COVID-19 vaccines. I saw the relief on people’s faces when they finally felt they could protect themselves and their families.
As a grandmother, vaccination has become even more personal to me. I think about the diseases my generation witnessed and the suffering we no longer routinely see because vaccines changed our world. I don’t want today’s parents to forget what those diseases could do simply because vaccines have made them less familiar.
That is a big part of why I became one of the founding members of Grandparents for Vaccines (GFV) and served as its initial Vice President for Media. Through GFV, I have had the privilege of hearing dozens of grandparents share firsthand experiences with vaccine-preventable diseases. Some remember siblings who died. Others remember children who suffered permanent complications. Those stories stay with you.
What do you want others to know about vaccination?
Personal stories have reinforced something I already knew as a nurse: behind every vaccination statistic is a child, a family, and a story.
My advocacy is rooted in science, but it is also rooted in love. I advocate for vaccination because I want my grandchildren’s generation to have the same protection vaccines gave my own children. I want today’s parents to have accurate information and the opportunity to make informed decisions without being overwhelmed by misleading health claims.
For me, being a vaccine advocate is an extension of being a nurse. It is about protecting health, preventing suffering, and using my voice when I know something can make a difference. And as a grandmother, I believe we have a special responsibility to speak up. We have lived long enough to remember what these diseases looked like. We have seen the heartache. We know what is at stake.
I don’t advocate because I am afraid of these diseases. I advocate because I know we have the power to prevent the suffering they can cause and to make protection part of everyday life.
What motivates you to stay up to date on vaccinations?
When I think about getting vaccinated, I think about the second graders I volunteer with. I want them to grow up healthy, in school, learning, playing, and becoming the people they are meant to be. I want to do my part to protect them and every child in my community, including my 6-year-old grandson Alex and my 9-year-old granddaughter Olivia.
I also think about family members who are fighting cancer and are too immunocompromised to receive certain vaccines. Their protection depends, in part, on the people around them being vaccinated and helping create a safer and healthier community.
And I think about newborns and young children who are not yet old enough to receive all the vaccines they need. They deserve a community that surrounds them with love and protection until they can be protected themselves.
After more than 40 years of nursing, I understand the potentially devastating and irreversible complications of vaccine-preventable diseases. I have seen what measles, mumps, rubella, and other diseases can do. These aren’t just illnesses we read about in textbooks. They can change a child’s life forever.
For me, vaccination is ultimately about looking beyond myself. I want to be part of that circle of love and protection that surrounds the people in my community who need it most.
Who in your community do you feel you are helping to protect by championing vaccination?
When I champion vaccination, I think about the people in my community who are counting on all of us to help keep them healthy and well.
By getting vaccinated and advocating for vaccination, I can help protect someone who is too young to be vaccinated, someone whose immune system cannot respond adequately, or someone who is simply more vulnerable to serious complications.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I saw this firsthand. At vaccination clinics, I watched people roll up their sleeves not only because they wanted to protect themselves, but because they wanted to protect their parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends.
How do you talk about vaccination with family members and your community?
I start by listening. My nursing career taught me that people rarely change their minds because someone simply gives them more facts. I try to understand what is behind a family’s hesitation. I acknowledge their concerns without judgment because I know parents want to do what is best for their children. I never want anyone to feel dismissed or shamed.
I also believe strongly in the power of stories. Through Grandparents for Vaccines, I have heard dozens of firsthand accounts from grandparents whose families were forever changed by vaccine-preventable diseases. Those stories can reach people in a way that statistics sometimes cannot.
Most importantly, I keep the door open. If someone isn’t ready to vaccinate today, I don’t want that conversation to end with them feeling alienated from their healthcare provider. I want them to feel comfortable coming back with another question tomorrow.
My goal is never to win an argument. My goal is to build trust so families feel supported and confident making decisions based on good information and their desire to protect their children.
What are your most pressing concerns about vaccine-preventable diseases right now?
My greatest concern is that we are beginning to forget what vaccine-preventable diseases can do. At the same time, misleading information and declining confidence in vaccines are making it easier for these diseases to return and become more widespread.
I have personally witnessed how vaccines changed the lives of children and families. Diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella became far less common because we chose prevention. It is deeply troubling to see diseases that many people in my generation remember as serious threats beginning to reappear.
I am especially concerned for children. They should not have to suffer the consequences of decisions based on false claims or fear. A child who develops a serious complication from measles doesn’t get a second chance if the information their family received was wrong.
I also worry about people who depend on the protection of others—newborns who are too young to receive certain vaccines and people who are immunocompromised because they are fighting cancer or living with other serious conditions.
And I worry about the erosion of trust in the institutions and experts families have traditionally relied upon for sound health information. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how quickly misleading information can spread and how difficult it can be to rebuild trust once it has been lost.
My concern isn’t simply that some people may choose not to vaccinate. It is that we risk losing our collective memory of what these diseases can do. I don’t want us to take the extraordinary success of vaccines for granted and allow preventable suffering to become our new normal.
Become a vaccine advocate
Whether you or a loved one has been affected by a vaccine-preventable disease or you simply want to share what vaccines mean for your family, we want to hear your story.