Meet Our Team: Jennifer Beard

Over the last several weeks, we have published a series of Q&As introducing our readers to the people behind the work here at Public Health Post: our student fellows and editorial team. Next up is Jennifer Beard, PHP’s associate editor. A global health researcher with a background in English literature, Jen mentors our student fellows to cultivate their writing process and find their unique public health voice.

Learn more about Jen, her public health interests, and what myths she hopes to bust through her work with PHP and beyond below.

What public health issue are you most passionate about, and why?

I am a professor of global health. I teach classes in the foundations of global health and global mental health. I’m fascinated by all of it, but I get frustrated with our focus on measuring problems. I’m most interested in what we can learn from stories and particularly from fiction. In The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, one of the characters describes fiction as “the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives.” I am passionate about bringing stories to students as a way to dig into history, health, and their own experience.

What drew you to Public Health Post, and what are you hoping to contribute or learn?

I have been the PHP associate editor since 2018. I joined because I wanted to mentor student fellows through this intensive year-long writing apprenticeship. Fellows pitch article ideas once a week and take each one through at least three drafts. I provide two rounds of detailed feedback, and then our executive editor takes over, guiding the fellow through the final polishing revision.

I have most enjoyed watching each of our fellows (I’ve worked with 34 so far!) develop and hone their writing practice and process and cultivate their own blend of confidence, humility, and persistence. Confidence that they have good ideas that will contribute to public health knowledge and practice. The humble recognition that anything they write can always be better. And, finally, the discipline to keep at it even when they are feeling overwhelmed by tight deadlines and so much feedback.

What’s a public health myth or misconception you’d love to bust?

A pervasive myth coming from President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is that their destruction of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative, USAID, and other global health programs is depriving life-saving medical care and other assistance where it is most needed. The reality is, these not-so-temporary funding cuts are killing people. Hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV are not receiving the medication they need to stay well and alive. Countries with a high burden of tuberculosis and malaria lost access to medication and other support overnight. And the tragedy doesn’t stop there. We are undoing decades of progress in the span of a few months.

And a writing misconception I want to break is that once you learn how to write, you always know how to do it. Every time you sit down to write, you are learning anew, creating something from nothing. It’s all about deliberate practice and trusting the process.

What’s the hardest part about translating public health research into something accessible?

Jargon, jargon, jargon. Trying to understand and explain articles that have been written by experts for other experts. The language pushes other readers away when it should be inviting all of us in.

How do you know when a story is worth telling?

Every story is worth telling, particularly public health stories that we can connect to our personal experience. I recently wrote about my experience learning about the nearly complete lack of support for long-term care in the U.S. It took me three years to write this narrative, and just as long a time to figure out what the point was and who I was writing it for. I almost quit many times, but I persisted. I had no idea that it would resonate with so many people.

If you weren’t in public health, what job would you want to try for a day?

A librarian. I’ve always had a vague feeling that I missed my real calling.

Coffee or tea?

Mocha latte

Early bird or night owl?

Very late night owl

Last book you read and loved?

I always have at least two books going at the same time. One I’m reading and one I’m listening to.

This January through May, I was immersed in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I also recently finished listening to Middlemarch by George Eliot. I reread it every couple of years. It gets better each time.

Dream vacation spot?

Every January, I take a solo vacation in Aruba. I read on the beach, float in perfect water, take long walks, and write for a half hour or so each day. It’s a perfect way to start the year.