I am not an epidemiologist. However, I am in a profession where nobody understands what I do or how I do it. Basically, my work consists of doing these things nobody understands and then explaining them to people in a way they can understand. Literally, 35 years of this.

If her work is so complex that she can't possibly explain it to an educated lay person, she doesn't really understand her own work very well. Additionally, she may lack the basic educational skills needed to communicate (vocabulary, sentence construction, verbal comprehension). It's sad, but that's what happens when people aren't competent in their profession.