Maxwell sociologist and University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, a flagship publication of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

The ASA made the appointment public in a recent news brief authored by Maxwell School colleague Shannon Monnat, who described Montez as “one of the most productive and impactful population health scholars of this generation.”

The Journal of Health and Social Behavior publishes empirical and theoretical articles applying sociological concepts and methods to the understanding of health and illness and the organization of medicine and health care. The journal has been an official ASA publication since 1967.

Montez brings deep editorial experience to the role. She served on the journal’s editorial board for six years, on the editorial board of The Milbank Quarterly and as deputy editor of Demography.

Montez’s research investigates troubling trends in population health in the United States since the 1980s and the growing influence of state policies and politics on those trends. A major focus of her work has been understanding why the trends are particularly pronounced for women, for people without a college degree and for those living in states in the South and Midwest. She also studies whether experiences in childhood, such as poverty and abuse, have enduring consequences for health during later life.

Her numerous funded research endeavors include a $1.9 million study with Monnat supported by the National Institute on Aging to accelerate research on trends in U.S. adult health and longevity in recent decades and explain why those trends are most troubling in certain states and local areas. In total, she has received over $12 million in grants as principal investigator or co-principal investigator to identify the causes of and solutions to poor health in the United States. Funders include the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Montez directs the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and co-directs the Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America which is funded by the National Institute on Aging. At Maxwell, she is the Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, a faculty associate at the Aging Studies Institute, and a research affiliate at the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health and Center for Policy Research.

She has served as chair of the ASA Sociology of Population Section and its Aging and the Life Course Section, as well as on the Population Association of America board of directors. Montez is currently serving as president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, a national organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the public, leading the organization through a period of unprecedented challenges to federal support for health research.

In September, Montez was one of three faculty members reappointed to the rank of University Professor, among the university’s most senior and selective academic statuses, recognizing exceptional scholarship and innovative academic and professional activity. In fall 2024, she was honored with a Dean’s Centennial Citation for Faculty Excellence. She was also named a 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, one of the most generous and prestigious fellowships in the social sciences and humanities.