Kristen Beyer
- Adjunct Professor, Geography
- Associate Professor, Institute for Health and Society, Medical College of Wisconsin
Education
- PhD, Geography, University of Iowa, 2009
- MPH, Global Health, University of Iowa, 2005
- MS, Clinical and Translational Science (Epidemiology track), Medical College of Wisconsin, 2012
Research Interests
Kirsten Beyer is a health geographer interested in human-environment interaction as it relates to public health, with environment conceived broadly as including the physical (built and natural) and social environments. Her work includes disease mapping, social and spatial epidemiology, and mixed methods approaches that aim to identify spatial patterns of disease and injury and understand the complex human-environment processes that create them.
Her primary research interests are in the health impacts of neighborhood environmental characteristics such as green space, redlining and residential racial segregation, and the development of community-based interventions to improve health and reduce health disparities. She focuses her work on disparities in chronic diseases (cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health) both locally and globally with ongoing projects in Milwaukee and East Africa. She has a strong interest in the role of community engagement in research and teaching and partners with local community organizations in undertaking her work. She is Director of the PhD Program in Public and Community Health, Co-Director of the Global Health Pathway for medical students, and Co-Director of the Geospatial, Epidemiology and Outcomes (GEO) shared resource of the MCW Cancer Center.