Beth Meyerson

Dr. Meyerson directs the Harm Reduction Research Lab with focus on public health policy and systems to advance harm reduction and sexual health in pharmacy and medicine. She also seeks to advance harm reduction science as well as the science of community engagement. Her research is oriented as translational to program and policy through the application of implementation science and community-based participatory action research (CBPAR). Dr. Meyerson's CBPAR orientation involves working with community partners to develop their own capacities to engage in citizen science - designing and implementing research projects, interpreting findings and communicating co-created evidence to policy partners to achieve systems change. Dr. Meyerson's systems research includes the identification of need and opportunities for system expansion to improve access to harm reduction and sexual health services. Examples include the evolution of pharmacy practice to assure nonstigmatized harm reduction services such as PrEP for HIV prevention, syringe sales to people who inject substances, opioid use disorder medications access and naloxone stocking and dispensing or health care provider treatment of people who use drugs. Policy research measuring the impact of federal policy change on methadone and buprenorphine access, evidence-based policy communication on policy decision making; and broadly, policy behaviors and their measurement, particularly by public institutions including studies of state STD investment, local public health accreditation, reported policy behaviors of state STD programs and local health departments, country-level policy planning, and policy adoption for syringe access. Dr. Meyerson has been highly engaged with legislative and administrative policy partners to translate research to policy development to improve community health worldwide, nationally, and most recently in Arizona.