Dr. Lauren B. Beach (they/them) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences and Department of Preventive Medicine, Director of the ReACH SGM lab (Research on Aging, Chronic Conditions, and Health Equity in Sexual and Gender Minority populations), and Director of the ADVOCATE SGM Health program within the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Research and Wellbeing (ISGMH).
Scientifically, Dr. Beach investigates the epidemiology of aging and chronic physical health conditions among diverse sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations and people with HIV (PWH). They also study how multilevel health and identity-related stigmas affect healthcare quality, chronic condition management, and health outcomes of minoritized populations. They hold R01 funding from NHLBI (Cardiovascular Health Associations with Minority Stress: Biobehavioral Evaluations and Self-Reported Sociopsychological Outcomes by SOGI Status (CHAMBERS), R01 HL149866) and NIAAA (Intersectional Approaches to Population-Level Health Research: Role of HIV Risk and Mental Health in Alcohol Use Disparities among Diverse Sexual Minority Youth, R01 AA029044) as well as administrative supplements from the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research and the Lurie Cancer Center.
Dr. Beach's education and training have followed an interdisciplinary path. As an alumna of the Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology, they received their JD, specialized in Health Law & Bioethics from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2012 and their PhD in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology & Genetics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2014.
For their PhD dissertation research, they studied the molecular mechanism of action of how ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors inhibit HIV-1 and HIV-2 replication. Following the completion of their PhD, Dr. Beach pursued training in global public health and completed an HIVCorps Public Health Fellow at the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), in Lusaka, Zambia.
They then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in behavioral diabetes and chronic kidney disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Notably, while at Vanderbilt, Dr. Beach also served as the Director of LGBTI Research. To obtain advanced expertise in epidemiology and SGM health, Dr. Beach completed a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship within the EDIT program of ISGMH prior to joining the faculty of the Department of Medical Social Sciences in July 2019.
Dr. Beach is also active in community engaged, evidence informed advocacy efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of bisexual populations. They are a founding member of the Chicago Bisexual Health Task Force (CBHTF) and the Visibility Impact Fund. They are also nationally active in bisexual health policy leadership circles and have spoken at the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to present recommendations for improving bisexual health outcomes and bisexual data collection methods.
