Jennifer Beard, PhD, MPH, MA

Jennifer Beard, PhD, MA, MPH, is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at Boston University School of Public. Dr. Beard started her academic life in the humanities, completing her BA in English literature at Youngstown State University, her MA at Ohio University with a focus on Victorian literature, and her PhD at the University of New Hampshire specializing in twentieth-century British women writers. While she has been working in public health for two decades, she remains a devoted reader of novels and believes that her global health teaching and research interests are rooted in her passion for Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, and Barbara Pym.

Dr. Beard brings her love of language and compelling stories into all of her public health work. She developed and leads the BUSPH Public Health Writing Program and is the author of Teaching Public Health Writing (Oxford University Press, 2022). She co-founded the BU Program for Global Health Storytelling – a collaboration between BUSPH, the BU College of Communication, and the Pulitzer Center. She co-directs the BUMC Narrative Writing Program, which provides faculty researchers and clinicians with the opportunity and support to explore the power of narrative writing.

She is the associate editor of Public Health Post, where she mentors student writing fellows and expert guest authors to translate and broaden the reach of their research. Her approach to editing and mentoring focuses on engaging readers by shortening their sentences, clarifying key points with vivid details, and eliminating (or at least reducing) technical jargon. And she is partnering with colleagues at Mälardalen University in Sweden to cultivate a global public health writing community.

Her scholarship and teaching explore the intersection between population health, the arts and humanities, and journalism. She developed and teaches courses in global mental health and global health journalism and is always looking for ways to incorporate fiction and creative non-fiction into her courses.

Dr. Beard oversaw a 9-study qualitative research project in Kumasi, Ghana focused on key populations at high risk for HIV in collaboration with colleagues at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and at BUSPH. That work is still bearing fruit, particularly concerning harm reduction policies and programs for people who use drugs. The KNUST-BUSPH team also completed studies on young female sex workers and their intimate partners and men who have sex with men.