Researchers receive 2024 R. Palmer Beasley, MD Faculty Award for Innovation

Congratulations to this year’s 2024 R. Palmer Beasley, MD Faculty Award for Innovation recipients: Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD professor and vice chair of the Department of Epidemiology; Nalini Ranjit, PhD, associate professor of the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences; and Alexandra van den Berg, PhD, MPH, professor of the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences.

The R. Palmer Beasley, MD Faculty Award for Innovation is an endowment at UTHealth Houston established with a philanthropic gift from Palmer Beasley, MD in 2012. Beasley served as dean of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health from 1987 to 2004. Beasley, internationally recognized for his research on the causal link between the hepatitis B virus and liver cancer, dedicated his career to epidemiology, public health leadership, and global health research and training. 
The endowment supports awards to faculty members whose work crafts innovative research and supports the school’s mission to advance public health. 

Sharma, Ranjit, and van den Berg were nominated for their innovative and collaborative research in elevating Food is Medicine efforts. Their work to build interinstitutional partnerships with state and national academic and healthcare systems and community organizations engaged in health equity was nationally recognized by an American Heart Association award for $1 million to build out projects to mitigate the impacts of food insecurity. Supported by the AHA award, all three researchers have dedicated projects to improving the health and wellness of mothers. Sharma and Ranjit’s initiatives focus on high-risk pregnant mothers as it relates to food prescription messaging, utilization and effectiveness, respectively. van den Berg’s work aims to further enhance nutrition and access for postpartum women in food insecure areas.  

Sharma serves as director of the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Center for Health Equity, which works to address the social and structural determinants of health. She co-leads the Health Equity Collective, a collective impact systems effort to mitigate food insecurity. She is co-founder of Brighter Bites, a nationwide non-profit dedicated to providing fresh produce and nutritional education to low-income children and their families. 

Ranjit is a member of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, a trained demographer and social epidemiologist. Her work focuses on designing and quantitatively evaluating complex multi-component interventions targeting diet and physical activity behaviors in low-income populations, mainly when they include policy, systems, and environmental changes. 

van den Berg serves as the associate director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living which seeks to advance healthy living for children and families through research and community level impact. She has over 20 years of experience developing and evaluating significant behavioral and environmental interventions addressing health disparities associated with dietary behaviors and weight status in low-income, ethnically diverse families in underserved communities.