MB (Marybeth) Mitcham, PhD, is the director of the Online MPH Program and an assistant professor at George Mason University, the first school of Public Health in Virginia. Mitcham’s research and work focus on the interplay between humans and their environment, leveraging available resources to achieve better community health outcomes, and exploring intergenerational and interdisciplinary approaches to foster personal connectedness. She uses qualitative and mixed-methods research approaches, as she also believes in the power of storytelling. Some of her research includes the impact of intergenerational initiatives on combating loneliness, the resilience of rural first responders, factors contributing to isolation among rural residents, the intersection of climate change and community resilience, gender identity exploration in rural contexts, and addressing food insecurity and poor patterns of dietary practices through plant-rich diets. A resident of the Adirondack Park of New York, Mitcham continues to work with local community organizations to help reduce health inequity, and spends as much of her free time scampering up and over mountains as she possibly can (sometimes dragged by her dogs).
FUTURE FOCUS
MB was blessed to have two amazing grandmothers, who valued storytelling as a mechanism to share truths, packaged in a form that may be more readily accepted by those who may be ignorant of or resistant to that truth. These grandmothers also valued a community of multiple generations, fostering communication and relationships between each person. In honor of her grandmothers, her work in the truth, racial healing, and transformation space involves intergenerational collaboration and storytelling, where people from diverse backgrounds learn, explore, share, laugh, and heal together, using the LARA method of conversation (Listen, Affirm, Respond, Ask) to support potentially challenging topics of conversation. MB is excited about the opportunity to learn from other members of the third cohort and the leaders of the Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing, so that her understanding of how to foster open and healing conversations can be deepened, making her work more effective to support a truthful framework through narrative change.
