UNC Charlotte alumna leads the North Carolina Public Health Association
Though she’s now president of the North Carolina Public Health Association, early in her collegiate journey Nina Beech ’15, ’24 MHA toyed with systems engineering. Turned out she wasn’t crazy about math. Then she considered nursing. Turned out she wasn’t crazy about blood.
Eventually she made her way to public health and a match was made. “I’m a bleeding heart and want to save the world,” she said. “By working in public health, hopefully I can at least make a small dent.”
Beech, a UNC Charlotte College of Health and Human Services alumna who earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and a Master of Health Administration, began her tenure as North Carolina Public Health Association president in September after having served as vice president and president elect. With more than 1,400 members, North Carolina is the largest affiliate within the American Public Health Association and was recently named affiliate of the year.
During her one-year tenure, Beech will be focused on keeping the pieces moving with the association’s strategic plan as well as making a push for more advocacy and offering development opportunities for members.
“In North Carolina and across the country, there are areas where the legislation seems to be inequitable. There are areas that still have great health disparities and a lack of access to care,” Beech said. “I want to continue to advance health for all and support local health departments and leaders in different regions, counties and health districts to have what they need to support the residents in their communities.”
One of the North Carolina Public Health Association’s current legislative priorities is supporting legislation that would raise the age for purchasing tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21. North Carolina is one of only seven states that has not adopted a Tobacco 21 law to match the federal minimum sales age.
“I’m really passionate about the tobacco issue,” Beech said. “I come from a family of smokers and my father is still smoking and I see how that impacts him.”
In addition to her role as association president, Beech is the director of the Healthy Living department at the Cabarrus Health Alliance where she oversees initiatives for diabetes prevention, lifestyle medicine, healthy cooking and worksite wellness.
developing leadership skills
Beech became a member of the North Carolina Public Health Association not long after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. “People ask me all the time why I returned to UNC Charlotte for my master’s degree and I said I just really enjoyed my undergrad there. I really liked the in-class experience and being able to connect with professors and peers and make lasting friends. I was a little older when I went to school and I think that definitely impacted my collegiate experience a bit.”
During graduate school, Beech was raising her son so was on a slower pace than most of her cohort and took four years to complete a Master of Health Administration. She credits College of Health and Human Services professors with helping mold her leadership skills.
“At the graduate level, there were a lot of courses that focused on leadership from an agency and organizational level perspective. Michael Thompson (Health Management and Policy associate professor) helped me out so much and really guided me.”
“As a nontraditional student, Nina brough maturity, experience and professionalism to the classroom,” Thompson said. “This combination of personal traits and lived experience made her a natural and respected leader.”
Beech is taking all she learned about public health and health administration at Charlotte into her role as president. A lasting message from her time at the University “was having a level of confidence and being fair and just and seeing the dignity in those characteristics.”
Photos provided by Nina Beech.