UAB’s School of Public Health welcomes Cora Elizabeth (Beth) Lewis, MD, MSPH, as the new Chair of the Department of Epidemiology beginning April 1, 2018.

Prior to this new appointment, Dr. Lewis has served as a Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the UAB School of Medicine and as Director of the Division’s Preventive Medicine Clinic. After completing a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, she attended the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine. She then came to UAB as a Fellow in the Division of General and Preventive Medicine in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Lewis is a graduate of the School of Public Health completing a MSPH degree with a concentration in Epidemiology during her fellowship.

Dr. Lewis’ research interests include a focus on the epidemiology of chronic diseases. As an internist and epidemiologist, she has considerable experience in designing and leading long-term epidemiologic studies and clinical trials, including expertise in recruitment and retention in large, long-term studies, measures of body composition, fat distribution and bone density, population surveys, disease outcomes, lifestyle assessments, and epidemiologic methodology. She has extensive collaborations with investigators in the Department of Epidemiology, across UAB, and around the country.

Dr. Lewis has had leadership roles in a number of multi-site collaborative studies, including as chair of LookAHEAD’s Core Measurement and Adjudication Committees, CARDIA’s Endpoints Surveillance and Adjudication Committee, Steering Committee, Executive Committee, and Publications Committees for CARDIA. She has served on review committees for NIAMS, NHLBI, and NIA, and in national organizations, including the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology. She is a distinguished faculty member of the annual American Heart Association Ten-Day Seminar on the Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke. She has also served as assistant editor of Annals of Epidemiology.

“Beth has international standing in the field of epidemiology and clinical research. She will help the Department of Epidemiology build on past successes and develop new areas of research, teaching, and practice,” says Interim Dean Peter Ginter. “Also, it’s exciting to have a distinguished alum of the department as a leader.”