Beauchamp named lab director
Associate Professor Jennifer E.S. Beauchamp, PhD, RN, FAAN, assumed leadership of the Biological Sciences Laboratory at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston effective Oct. 1.
The new Cizik Nursing Research Institute (CNRI) includes a Biobehavioral Health Research Core that will be housed within the school. In addition to overseeing management and operations of general lab activities, Beauchamp will serve as director of the CNRI biobehavioral lab, which will maintain high-quality tissue samples along with clinical and sociodemographic data. Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN, director of the CNRI, said planning is underway to add additional resources in the lab to support epigenetics research.
Beauchamp has been involved with biobanking for more than two decades, first as a senior research nurse with the UTHealth Houston Texas Medical Center Genetics Project (TexGen) and eventually as principal investigator and project lead for The University of Texas System Health Biobank.
“Dr. Beauchamp’s expertise with biobanking and as a behavioral scientist will be invaluable as we build the research institute and continue to provide bench-science support to our faculty and students,” said Dean Diane Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, ACRN, PHNA-BC, FAAN.
Beauchamp, the Nancy B. Willerson Distinguished Professor in Nursing, joined the faculty in 2011 after completing PhD and Master of Science in Nursing degrees at Cizik School of Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Kent State University.
Beauchamp also serves as the director of the Mental Health Program at the UTHealth Houston Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease. She has served as a principal investigator and co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects. Her primary research interest focuses on the nature of social behaviors and the development of innovative behavioral interventions for the treatment of symptoms of depression and anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness after stroke.
Associate Professor Hongyu Wang, MD, PhD, has led the biological sciences laboratory since 2019 and will continue to work with faculty on research projects. In addition to her appointment at Cizik School of Nursing, Wang is an assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging and the Institute of Molecular Medicine at McGovern School of Medicine at UTHealth Houston.
“Please join me in thanking Dr. Wang for her leadership and supporting Dr. Beauchamp in her new role,” Santa Maria said.
