Lauren Beach, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medical Social Sciences
Research Program
Cancer-Focused Research
Dr. Lauren B. Beach (they/them and she/her) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences and the Department of Preventive Medicine. She is also Director of the ReACH SGM lab (Research on Aging, Chronic Conditions, and Health Equity in Sexual and Gender Minority populations), as well as a core faculty member 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 an administrative supplement from the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research. They are a national expert in the measurement of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity (SSOGI) within epidemiological surveillance, survey research, health systems contexts. In September 2021, Dr. Beach was named Project Leader of a supplement to Lurie Cancer Center's main center funding (P30CA060553, Platanias) to scale up sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection within the cancer center. The project will also support the construction of a health equity data dashboard for breast cancer that includes SOGI measures.