Karla Beach’s work focuses on public health innovation and the implementation of health policy through data, analytics, and cross-sector solutions. She is adept at synthesizing evidence to design and deliver support for federal, state, and local government agencies; health care delivery systems; and community organizations. She has extensive experience in health policy research, public health, and the provision of technical assistance and support to state and federal programs. Beach has led mixed-methods research on the integration, infrastructure, and interoperability of public health data.
Beach supports Mathematica’s state health portfolio across a variety of projects. For the Pennsylvania Rural Health project, she leads several small teams in implementing alternative payment models, including working with commercial payers and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to set, update, and reconcile global budgets for rural hospitals. She has provided training and technical assistance (TTA) to multisector coalitions in the Social Determinants of Health (SDOHs)—Getting Further Faster initiative; this includes leading a team to develop TTA webinars that support collaborative learning among multisector coalitions working to address SDOHs in their communities. Beach has also led the development of methods for using electronic health record data to identify pediatric cancer and other environmentally relevant diseases through cross-sector collaboration, and she supports the review of policies, systems, and practices for public health data exchange in all 50 states.
Before joining Mathematica in 2021, Beach worked with the National Association of County and City Health Officials, where she led the National Profile of Local Health Departments study. She has worked with public health surveillance programs at the state and federal level to develop and validate innovative surveillance tools and to monitor emerging infections. She also has extensive experience in developing and validating standardized performance metrics to improve health service delivery in low- and middle-income countries.
Beach holds an M.P.H. with an emphasis on environmental health from Georgia State University.
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