Dr. Meininger is Lee and Joseph D. Jamail Distinguished Professor in the UTHealth School of Nursing with a cross appointment in Epidemiology at the UT School of Public Health. Her PhD specialization in epidemiology underpins the population focus of her research on cardiovascular health and her expertise in quantitative observational research methods. Since her faculty appointment at UTHealth in 1985 she has taught in the BSN, MSN, MPH and PhD programs.  She directed the faculty in development of the PhD program in Nursing at UTHealth, which entered its first class in 1996.  Meininger is head of the Division of Research, Theory and Statistics in the Department of Nursing Systems.

Meininger’s research is on cardiovascular health and risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, with recent research targeted on obesity and blood pressure. Her work has a biopsychosocial perspective, incorporating physiological, anthropometric, psychological and socioeconomic factors. She has been principal investigator of six grants from the NINR or its predecessors.  Several of her funded studies have focused on cardiovascular health in children and adolescents. In addition, she has been an investigator for interventions to lower blood pressure in adults. She has been a co-principal investigator and consultant for other funded studies and has sponsored research trainees for pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and career development awards.  Current extensions of her research include investigation of productivity of health care services and the public health system in relation to population cardiovascular health outcomes.

She has authored and co-authored over 100 research publications and abstracts, and she has served as a member of NIH and CDC review panels. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1990, a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in 2006, and the Academy of Health Science Education of The University of Texas System in 2007. She was named a UT System Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2012. 

Meininger earned a BSN from St Louis University, her MSN in Public Health Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  She has previously held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Case Western Reserve University.