The Nashville Regional HIV Planning Council has honored Lauren Beach, J.D., Ph.D., with the 2017 Community Partnership Award.
The recognition is given to an individual who has built bridges to promote HIV treatment, prevention and community awareness. Beach is a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension as well as director of research for the Program for LGBTI Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She received the engraved crystal award at the HIV Planning Council’s annual meeting Feb. 21 at the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville.
“The Ryan White Part A Program and Nashville Regional HIV Planning Council have been very impressed with the work Lauren has been engaged in through addressing LGBT health inequities,” said Pam Sylakowski, director of the Ryan White Part A Program for Metro Health Department.
“In particular, her presentation to the Planning Council titled ‘Bisexuality, Biphobia and HIV/AIDS Disparities Among U.S. Men’ was an eye-opener to the Planning Council, bringing some new answers and even more questions as to how the Planning Council needs to collaborate with others in addressing disparities for those living with HIV.”
“Thank you very much,” Beach said in accepting the award. “This means a lot to me. I am truly humbled. Everyone in this room here, I really look up to and draw strength, knowledge and wisdom from.”
Beach previously served as an HIV Corps Public Health Fellow at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Lusaka, Zambia, from August 2014 to July 2015.
An alumna of the University of Minnesota’s joint degree program in Law, Science and Technology, she has a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics.
Beach is slated to speak on “Stigma and Physical Health Disparities in LGBTQI Populations” from noon to 1 p.m., Monday, March 13, in 202 Light Hall during a LGBTI Health Grand Rounds presentation.
