Bettina M. Beech Appointed Editor-in-Chief of “Population Health Management”

Congratulations to Bettina M. Beech, DrPH, MPH, FAHA, on her new role as Editor-in-Chief of Population Health Management. Dr. Beech is the successor to the founding editor and giant in the field Dr. David Nash.

This journal could be a great outlet for IAPHS members and others in the field.

More on Dr. Beech below.

Bettina M. Beech, DrPH, MPH, FAHA is the Chief of Population Health and Translational Science and Clinical Professor of Clinical Sciences 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. 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 Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) of the Consortium of Precision Health (CTPH), the new CTSA at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston. In addition, she is the PI of the HEALTH-RCMI, a center grant in the Research Centers in Minority Institutions consortium; MPI of AIM-AHEAD – an NIH-funded consortium grant tasked with workforce development in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), and Contact PI of the NHLBI-funded Obesity Health Disparities PRIDE, a research training and mentoring program for early career faculty and transitioning postdoctoral fellows. 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 lead editor the first (2004) and second (2024) edition of Race and Research: Perspectives on Minority Participation in Health Studies and assumes the role of Editor-in-Chief of Population Health Management after serving as a reviewer for over 20 peer-reviewed journals, an Associate Editor for Ethnicity and Disease, and the immediate past Editor-in-Chief for Family and Community Health.

Dr. Beech is involved in several national population-health related activities. She is a member of several national boards including the Humana Foundation Board of Directors, National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches, Qualtrics Higher Education Advisory Council, Geisinger Medical School, and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Sciences (IAPHS).

A native of Los Angeles, California, Dr. Beech holds a B.A. from Temple University, Master of Public Health from Temple University, and a Dr.P.H. in Community Health from University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Public Health. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral science at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and was 2011-2012 Fellow in the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women (Drexel University). In addition, she completed the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program (2016-2017). In 2024, she was elected as a Fellow in the American Heart Association and recipient of the J. Michael McGinnis Leadership Excellence Award.