The election is open June 7 to July 19. You must be an individual member of IAPHS by July 19 to vote. If you are not already a member, click here to join.

Those continuing on the Board during 2025 and their 2025 positions include Philip Alberti (President), Magdalena Cerda (Past-President), Suzanne Bevan (Executive Director), Board members Elizabeth Wildsmith, Katrina Walsemann, Megan Todd, Sarah Gollust, Silvia Martins, Kaori Fujishiro, Caryn Bell, Alexander Tsai, and Michael Green. Retiring members include Jennifer Karas Montez, Marino Bruce, and Elaine Hernandez.

Thanks to Past President Mark Hayward, who chaired the Nominations Committee, Nominations Committee Members, and a special thanks to our candidates for their willingness to serve IAPHS

PRESIDENT-ELECT

This person will serve as the President-Elect in 2025, President in 2026 and Past-President in 2027. In 2025, they will appoint individual(s) to chair the 2026 Program Committee as well as other new members of IAPHS committees in 2026.

Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD

AFFILIATION:

Syracuse University

DISCIPLINE:

Sociology and Demography

WEBSITE

Hedy Lee, PhD

AFFILIATION:

Duke University

DISCIPLINE:

Sociology

WEBSITE

Jennifer Karas Montez's Candidate Statement:

Jennifer Karas Montez is a University Professor of Sociology, Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, and Director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies at Syracuse University. She also codirects the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University, which provides interdisciplinary training in population health for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.Read more

Hedy Lee's Candidate Statement:

I am a James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Duke University. Before coming to Duke, I was a professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis (2017-2022) and the University of Washington (2011-2017), and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of Michigan (2009-2011). Read more

BOARD MEMBERS

The Board provides oversight and strategic guidance to IAPHS. It meets by conference calls throughout the year and in-person just before the annual IAPHS Conference. The three Board Members elected this year will serve 3 year terms beginning November 1, 2024.

BOARD MEMBER – JUNIOR

Courtney Boen, Ph.D, MPH.

AFFILIATION:

University of Pennsylvania

DISCIPLINE:

Sociology and Demography

WEBSITE

Alicia Riley, PhD

AFFILIATION:

University of California, Santa Cruz

DISCIPLINE:

Sociology, Social Epidemiology

WEBSITE

Courtney Boen's Candidate Statement:

Inequalities in health are staggering in scope, persistent over time, and devastating in toll. My research combines critical and relational theories of race and racism, insights from the life course perspective, and a variety of social demographic techniques to: 1) provide detailed and accurate estimates of racialized, legal status, and socioeconomic inequities in health; and 2) interrogate and reveal the structural, institutional, and sociopolitical determinants of population health inequality.Read more

Alicia Riley's Candidate Statement:

I would love to serve as a junior board member to ensure that the sense of belonging I have found in IAPHS is extended to other students, practitioners, and scholars of population health. As an interdisciplinary scholar interested in critical approaches to population health research, I have found the mix of training and experience reflected in IAPHS members refreshing and productive. I have also enjoyed partnering with others to build community by serving on the Communications Committee for two years. IAPHS is breaking down barriers and making population health research accessible, impactful, and responsive, and I am excited to support this work. Read more

BOARD MEMBER – MID-CAREER

William Story, PhD and MPH

AFFILIATION:
University of Iowa College of Public Health

DISCIPLINE:
Public Health

WEBSITE

Andrew Stokes, PhD

AFFILIATION:

Boston University

DISCIPLINE:

Demography, Sociology

WEBSITE

William Story's Candidate Statement:

Dr. William Story is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health and the Director of the Maternal and Child Health Catalyst Program at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health. Dr. Story has over 20 years of experience in global public health focused on sexual, reproductive, maternal, and child health in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the U.S. Midwest.Read more

Andrew Stokes's Candidate Statement:

Andrew C. Stokes, PhD is an Associate Professor at Boston University. As a demographer and population health researcher, his scholarship examines the social, economic, and health policy determinants of rising mortality inequities within the U.S. and the widening U.S. mortality disadvantage compared to peer nations. His research interests span from upstream factors such as tobacco regulatory policy and food environments to downstream factors such as chronic pain and disability. Read more

BOARD MEMBER – SENIOR

Bettina Beech, DrPH, MPH, FAHA

AFFILIATION:
The University of Houston, Population Health

DISCIPLINE:
Public Health, Population

WEBSITE

Theresa Osypuk, ScD, ScM.

AFFILIATION:

University of Minnesota

DISCIPLINE:

Epidemiology

WEBSITE

Bettina Beech's Candidate Statement:

Bettina M. Beech, DrPH, MPH, FAHA is the Chief Population Health Officer, Founder of UH Population Health at the University of Houston. She is a population and public health scientist whose work spans clinical, population health, community-partnered, and health policy research and the associated risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases with a focus on reducing health disparities and improving minority health. Dr. Beech has focused on the intergenerational transmission of behavioral, social, and environmental risks for cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases among African American children, adolescents, parents, and grandparents. Read more

She has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over two decades and she has provided leadership on important studies such as the Jackson Heart KIDS Study (an ancillary offspring study to the Jackson Heart Study), Girl’s Health Enrichment Multi-site Studies (GEMS), the Healthy Families Study (a childhood obesity cluster RCT with Hispanic families), and Parents and Children Together Preventing Diabetes (PACT-PD) (one of the first studies translating the Diabetes Prevention Study for African American parents and children). Dr. Beech has been committed to scaling family-based interventions to improve health outcomes and overall quality-of-life, particularly among disadvantaged populations.

Dr. Beech is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) or Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) of three major NIH grants which include the HEALTH-RCMI, a center grant in the Research Centers in Minority Institutions consortium focusing on addictions and cancer prevention; AIM-AHEAD – a national consortium grant tasked to diversify the field of data science and the use of diverse data sets in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) studies designed to promote health equity; and the Obesity Health Disparities Program for Inclusion and Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health Related Research (OHD PRIDE) – a research training and mentoring program for individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Her current research also leverages multi-sector partnerships to conduct late-stage translational research examining the impact of loneliness and social isolation on obesity-induced hypertension and cardiovascular disease reversal interventions using defined plant-based diets among African Americans. Dr. Beech has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reports focusing on the full range of determinants impacting the cardiovascular health and well-being of African Americans. She is currently an associate editor of Ethnicity and Disease, an editorial board member of Population Health Management, and co-editor of the first (2004) and soon to be released second edition of Race and Research: Perspectives on Minority Participation in Health Studies (2024).

Dr. Beech has been an active member of IAPHS since the early years of the organization when she was the Founding Dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Her involvement in IAPHS has deepened since joining the University of Houston (UH) as she established the first undergraduate chapter of IAPHS, served on the Awards Committee, and facilitated the establishment of the Humana Foundation Excellence in Health Equity Award. Dr. Beech has introduced faculty and students to IAPHS through institutional memberships as well as university fellowships sponsoring undergraduate and graduate student travel to annual IAPHS meetings. She earned a DrPH in Community Health Science from the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral science at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and completed leadership training from the American Council on Education (ACE) and from the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM). Dr. Beech was also recently elected as a Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA).

Theresa Osypuk's Candidate Statement:

Theresa L. Osypuk, ScD, ScM, is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health, at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where she is also the Director of the Minnesota Population Center, and Co-Director of the Population Health Science Training Program. Dr. Osypuk is a social epidemiologist, demographer, and population health scholar. Her research examines why place and social policy influence population health and health disparities. She studies the influence of racial residential segregation, neighborhood context, and social and economic policies implemented outside of the health sector, for their effects on health disparities across the life course. Read more

Dr. Osypuk is currently the principal investigator of several NIH grants, including research grants investigating how Housing Choice Vouchers (the largest federal affordable housing policy in the U.S.) and neighborhood context influence the health of families. She has authored and coauthored over 100 scientific articles, reports, and chapters, in leading medical, epidemiology, social epidemiology, demography, urban health, housing, and population health scientific outlets. She has also collaborated on applied projects, including to translate social determinants of health research for policy makers and advocates, to stimulate policy to improve the context and life chances of U.S. racial/ethnic minority children and families, emphasizing equity and diversity. She earned her masters and doctoral degrees in Social Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health, and trained in Population Health as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan. Dr. Osypuk is passionate about population health, and is well positioned to represent the IAPHS organization to promote population health research. She promotes population health through her current leadership positions, including as an NICHD-funded Pop Center Director, T32 Pop Health Program Director, her teaching, and various service roles such as NIH study section member. She has been active in IAPHS since 2018. She served in past IAPHS leadership as the IAPHS Program Chair in 2018-2019, to spearhead planning the 2019 annual meeting. In this role, she was influential in rethinking the structure of the program. For example, she advocated to restructure the meeting to allow submitting stand-alone abstracts (rather than organizing the meeting around group-based sessions) which was important to promote equity among less socially-connected members; and to restructure the poster sessions to facilitate professional networking. Dr. Osypuk attends the IAPHS annual meeting nearly every year, and supports a contingent of enthusiastic University of Minnesota population health trainees and faculty to attend, as well. IAPHS has become her favorite professional meeting, and she would be honored to represent the membership on the Board.

Elections

PRESIDENT-ELECT

This person will serve as the President-Elect in 2025, President in 2026 and Past-President in 2027. In 2025, they will appoint individual(s) to chair the 2026 Program Committee as well as other new members of IAPHS committees in 2026.

Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD

Hedy Lee, PhD

Jennifer Karas Montez's Candidate Statement:

Hedy Lee's Candidate Statement:

BOARD MEMBERS

The Board provides oversight and strategic guidance to IAPHS. It meets by conference calls throughout the year and in-person just before the annual IAPHS Conference. The three Board Members elected this year will serve 3 year terms beginning November 1, 2024.

BOARD MEMBER – JUNIOR

Courtney Boen, Ph.D, MPH.

Alicia Riley, PhD

Courtney Boen's Candidate Statement:

Alicia Riley's Candidate Statement:

BOARD MEMBER – MID-CAREER

William Story, PhD and MPH

Andrew Stokes, PhD

William Story's Candidate Statement:

Andrew Stokes's Candidate Statement:

BOARD MEMBER – SENIOR

Bettina Beech, DrPH, MPH, FAHA

Theresa Osypuk, ScD, ScM.

Bettina Beech's Candidate Statement:

Theresa Osypuk's Candidate Statement: