Lies ter Beek is an Assistant Professor in Prevention & Public Health at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and in Health Behaviors & Chronic Disease at the Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Center. She holds a BSc degree in Nutrition & Dietetics from the Amsterdam University of Applied Science and a PhD in Medicine from the University of Groningen. She started her career in healthcare in 2000 as a temporary worker at the University Medical Center Groningen (then named AZG, now UMCG) as a nutrition assistant at the departments of Gastroenterology & Liver Diseases, and the Center for Dialysis. Followed by 3 years of working as a dietitian at a home care organization, after which she returned to the UMCG to work as a research assistant at the department of Genetics, at the EUROCAT-European Registration of Congenital Anomalies. She gave birth to two children, in 2005 and 2009 respectively. In 2012 she resumed working as a dietitian, in the clinical practice of the Tuberculosis Center Beatrixoord, department of Pulmonary Diseases & Tuberculosis at the UMCG. In 2013 she began her PhD research on supportive care in clinical practice, and started to work as lecturer at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, in addition to her clinical work. In 2021 she moved her careerpath to Amsterdam to start as an Assistant Professor at the department of Health Sciences at Vrije Universiteit, where she combines research with teaching.
dr. Lies ter Beek
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Prevention and Public Health
Assistant Professor, Amsterdam Public Health, APH - Health Behaviors & Chronic Diseases
Lies ter Beek's expertise is at the intersection of health literacy and behavior change, and intervention development in both healthcare and public health, specifically with regard to people in a vulnerable position. She has extensive experience in working with people with limited health literacy, as well as insufficient language skills, in the clinical setting: both as a healthcare professional and as a scientist. The main overarching themes of her research are people’s resilience, competences, and awareness with the aim of improving preventive care. For example with regard to nutrition and functionality. (ter Beek et al. 2018, 2020) She wants preventive care to become more accessible for people with limited health literacy. At the same time, she aims to strengthen the skills that people need to become more healthy. (Sponselee, ter Beek et al. 2023) Current projects focus on intervention development with regard to health literacy and health behavior change, in both the community as well as in the clinical setting, holding a clinical researcher registration (brok 15088).
Lies ter Beek has been teaching since 2013, and received her qualification in didactic competence and examination in higher education (BDB/BKE) and her teaching qualification in the academy (BKO). She is examinator and coordinator of the Health Sciences’ bachelor course ‘Health, behavior and lifestyle’. She is a teacher/working group leader in the Health Sciences’ bachelor course ‘Epidemiology and Biostatistics’ which is a preparation course for the bachelor internship. She is also the specialization coordinator Prevention & Public Health in the master Health Sciences. In addition she supervises bachelor and master students during their internships each year.
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