2026 Scientific Meeting

The 2026 American Academy of Health Behavior (AAHB) conference theme, “Centering Community in Health Behavior Research and Practice,” underscores the transformative power of lived experience in advancing social change and improving health outcomes. Evidence shows that when we engage with communities and center their experiences, not only are health behaviors positively impacted, but this approach strengthens public health planning, improves access to services, enhances health literacy, and contributes to a wide range of positive health outcomes. Across diverse populations, models of community engagement have demonstrated measurable success, offering promising pathways for inclusive and effective health strategies. By embracing this theme, our conference will explore innovative ways to mobilize community health for action and policy—recognizing the social, economic, and environmental forces that shape disparities, while also illuminating the shared experiences that connect us all.

Speaker Profiles

Julie Baldwin, PhD

Executive Director, Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER)
Regents’ Professor, Department of Health Sciences
Northern Arizona University

Profile

Dr. Julie Baldwin, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER) and a Regents’ Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Northern Arizona University. She earned her doctorate in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Baldwin’s research focuses on infectious and chronic disease prevention, with cross-cutting emphases on community-based participatory research and addressing health disparities through culturally centered, theory-driven public health interventions. She is the Principal Investigator of the Southwest Health Engagement and Research Collaborative (SHERC), a U54 NIMHD-funded research center for minority-serving institutions. Dr. Baldwin was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine in 2023. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, she has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to serving diverse communities and advancing health promotion efforts for children, adolescents, and families.

Priscilla Barnes, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor, School of Public Health
Center for Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation Research (CCEDIR)
Indiana University Bloomington

Profile

Dr. Priscilla Barnes, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at Indiana University Bloomington and the Founding Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation Research (CCEDIR). Her work focuses on building and sustaining community-academic partnerships that improve public health programs and outcomes. She has led numerous initiatives that connect universities, health systems, and community organizations to strengthen how research is implemented in real-world settings. Dr. Barnes is recognized for her collaborative approach to translating evidence into action and supporting healthier communities through partnership and innovation.

Elaine A. Borawski, PhD, FAAHB

Angela Bowen Williamson Professor of Community Nutrition
Vice Chair of Applied Research, Department of Nutrition
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Profile

Dr. Borawski is the Angela Bowen Williamson Professor of Community Nutrition and Vice Chair of Applied Research in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve University School Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a medical sociologist interested in the social and environmental influences of health and health behavior and the development and testing of new intervention strategies that draw from the strengths of the environment and the people who live within them. Her research has focused on a wide range of public health issues, including childhood obesity, healthy food access, HIV and pregnancy prevention, and tobacco prevention and control – securing over $35 million in external funding for her research. She has led the development of two community-engaged research centers at CWRU, the Center for Health Promotion Research (1998-2009) and the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (2009-2020), a nationally recognized research center committed to addressing health disparities in Greater Cleveland, focused on underserved and under-resourced urban neighborhoods. She also served for 10 years as the faculty lead for the community-engagement core of the Cleveland Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative. Her most recent funded research uses a systems alignment approach, bringing together clinical, non-profit, and public resources to address healthy food access among low-income and minority pregnant Clevelanders who are at much greater risk of delivering a premature baby, contributing to the significant disparities in the region’s infant mortality rate. Dr. Borawski’s AAHB talk will draw on these many experiences to discuss the challenges and rewards in the evolving landscape of community-based and community-engaged health behavior research.

Michael Mackert, PhD

Director, Center for Health Communication
Professor, Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations
The University of Texas at Austin

Profile

Dr. Michael Mackert, PhD, is the Director of The University of Texas at Austin Center for Health Communication and Professor in the School of Advertising & Public Relations and Department of Population Health. His research focuses primarily on the strategies that can be used in traditional and new digital media to provide effective health communication to audiences with low health literacy. He leads projects on a variety of public health issues – including tobacco cessation, opioid overdose prevention, and men's role in prenatal health – that generate evidence-based health communication strategies and contribute to health communication scholarship.

Renée Umstattd Meyer, PhD, FAAHB

Professor, Department of Public Health
Associate Dean for Research, Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences
Baylor University

Profile

Dr. Renée Umstattd Meyer, PhD FAAHB, is a professor in the Department of Public Health and the Associate Dean for Research in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University in Waco, TX. She is dedicated to promoting health and access to opportunities for healthy living through an active living lens. Her research employs community-engaged and participatory action approaches to understand cultural and contextual factors that shape health behaviors and inform policies and practices that foster active, healthy communities. Much of her work centers on partnerships with underserved rural populations across the lifespan, applying implementation science to enhance the reach and sustainability of evidence-based initiatives. Dr. Umstattd Meyer’s research has been supported by federal agencies, foundations, and local organizations. She has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, leads the Rural Hub of the CDC-funded Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN), and is a Fellow and past president of the American Academy of Health Behavior.

Lorraine Reitzel, PhD

Professor of Behavioral Science
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Profile

Dr. Lorraine Reitzel, PhD, is a Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who leverages implementation science to build capacity to improve patient care for tobacco use through partnerships with myriad healthcare and community agencies across Texas, including in medically underserved and rural areas of the state. In her career, she has been instrumental in securing >$50 million in interdisciplinary sponsored research, with >$16 million of that as Principal Investigator. She has >200 peer-reviewed publications and is a fellow of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and the American Academy of Health Behavior.

Leigh Ann Simmons, PhD, MFT, FAAHB

Professor, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing
Director, Health Equity Across the Lifespan (HEAL) Lab
Co-Director, Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center
University of California, Davis

Profile

Dr. Leigh Ann Simmons, PhD, MFT, FAAHB, is a tenured professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, Director of the Health Equity Across the Lifespan (HEAL) Lab, and co-director of the Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center. Her research advances health equity among historically marginalized populations through digital, clinical, and community-engaged interventions. She has led multiple NIH- and state-funded projects, including mHealth trials during pregnancy and the postpartum period, trauma-informed, county-level redesign of health and social services systems, and community collaborations to evaluate personalized models of care, including postpartum home visiting and patient education after adverse pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Simmons also co-leads the ReACH Equity predoctoral T32 and CTSC KL2 in patient-oriented research, both NIH-funded, interdisciplinary training programs at UC Davis focused on cultivating the next generation of community-engaged scholars.

Selina Stasi, DrPH, MPH

Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior
Texas A&M University

Profile

Dr. Selina Stasi, DrPH, MPH, received her DrPH in Health Promotion & Community Health Sciences from Texas A&M University and joined the Department of Health Behavior at Texas A&M University as an assistant professor in 2018. Dr. Stasi’s research focuses on community engagement in teaching, research, and practice and the promotion of physical activity. Dr. Stasi has a community partner network of over 30 partners, has sent over 3000 students to serve community partners through a community engaged learning project, practicums, and research efforts, and has presented at national conferences on her pedagogy. Dr. Stasi has served on over 150 honors, masters, and doctoral committees within public health and across multiple disciplines. Most recent, Dr. Stasi received the Texas A&M University Community Engagement Award for Faculty from the Office of the President in 2025.

Courtney Thomas Tobin, PhD

Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences and African American Studies
Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence
Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA

Profile

Dr. Courtney Thomas Tobin, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences and African American Studies and serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence in the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Thomas Tobin’s research examines how racialized social stressors and coping processes shape health trajectories and multimorbidity among Black Americans across the life course. She directs the Collaborative Research on African American Wellness and Longevity (CRAAWL) Lab at UCLA, which unites scholars, clinicians, and community partners to address the social and contextual determinants of health. The lab leads interdisciplinary research on multimorbidity and community-engaged science through the Multimorbidity Outcomes & Solutions for African/Black Americans in California (MOSAIC) Initiative, integrating participatory and dissemination frameworks to translate findings into community-informed solutions. In partnership with the Deters Lab and the Parkinson’s CORE Collaborative, CRAAWL launched its first collaborative research hub, the Black Brain Health Network (BBHN), which advances brain health equity in Los Angeles’ Black communities through reciprocal, trust-based collaboration and community education.

Contact | Members Area | Join
Shop | Terms of Use | Privacy

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software