Beth Linas

Beth Linas is a research epidemiologist in the Center for Applied Public Health Research at RTI. She has over 15 years of experience across academia, industry, and state and federal public health agencies. Her research and policy expertise centers on the use of data to address social determinants of health and improve health outcomes among marginalized, underserved, and understudied communities impacted by substance use disorder and infectious diseases. Specifically, Dr. Linas is interested in the role of harm reduction in improving the lives of people who use drugs and is helping to lead a study on the effect of fentanyl test strip use on overdose risk reduction behaviors. Additionally. Dr. Linas is involved with several NIH-funded projects, including the HEALing Communities study and RECOVER Initiative, which aim to reduce opioid overdose deaths and understand COVID-19 recovery, respectively.

Dr. Linas provides expertise and technical assistance on infectious disease epidemiology and surveillance, study design, survey design, program evaluation, epidemiologic methods, applied/field epidemiology, digital health, and science communications.

Before joining RTI in 2021, Dr. Linas was a lead public health specialist with MITRE, where she oversaw a team of analysts engaged in a $20 million evaluation of adolescent pregnancy prevention programs for the Department of Health and Human Services. She also served as a science and technology policy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, supporting computer science and engineering researchers with the Smart and Connected Health Program at the National Science Foundation.