The American Sociological Association (ASA) has appointed Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology at Syracuse University, as the next editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB). I have had the privilege of knowing Montez as a close colleague, collaborator, and friend for more than a decade, and I can say without hesitation that there is no one better suited to lead JHSB at this pivotal moment for science.
A Scholar of Extraordinary Range and Impact
Montez is one of the most productive and impactful population health scholars of this generation. Her research tackles some of the most consequential questions in contemporary population health science: Why did the United States fall behind peer nations in life expectancy? Why do mortality rates vary so dramatically across states? Why have educational disparities in health widened so steeply since the 1980s? Drawing on social determinants, political economy, and life course frameworks in ways that are theoretically ambitious and empirically rigorous, her work has not merely contributed to existing debates—it has reframed them. For instance, her research on how state policy contexts shape health and longevity has spawned an entire subfield, and her publicly available State Policies and Politics Database has become essential infrastructure for population health research across disciplines.
When Montez takes something on, she does it completely. Her work ethic is incomparable. She holds herself to an extraordinarily high standard, and the result is a body of scholarship that is thorough and consequential. She has published 75 peer-reviewed articles in leading venues including Demography, the Milbank Quarterly, Annual Review of Sociology, American Journal of Public Health, and JHSB itself. Her research has been covered in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post, and she has presented findings at congressional briefings; to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; and through nearly two dozen policy briefs, commentaries, and editorials. These achievements reflect not just productivity, but the real-world impact of work done with exceptional rigor and care.
Editorial Experience and Service to the Discipline
Editorial Experience and Service to the DisciplineMontez brings deep and directly relevant editorial experience to this role. She served on the JHSB editorial board for six years, on the editorial board of the Milbank Quarterly, and as deputy editor of Demography. She knows how good editorial stewardship works. Her reviews and editorial decisions emphasize fairness and good reason, and are grounded in scientific merit.
Her service to the discipline is equally impressive in breadth and depth. 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 Board of Directors. Montez is currently president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, where she is leading the organization through a period of unprecedented challenges to federal support for health research. The reach of her service reflects how widely respected she is across the fields of sociology, demography, and population health science and how willing she is to do the critical, though sometimes unglamorous, work of keeping scientific institutions healthy and thriving.
Vision for the Journal
Montez has a clear and ambitious vision for JHSB that builds on its exceptional foundation while pushing the journal decisively forward. First, she will prioritize manuscripts that either significantly advance core topics—such as social disparities in health, stigma, family, work, and health care—or that tackle genuinely new and emerging issues—including the health consequences of policy polarization, democratic backsliding, structural racism, climate change, commercial determinants of health, and advances in data science.
Second, she aims to encourage disruptive social science. A recent article in Nature argued that published papers, particularly in the social sciences, are increasingly less likely to push science in new directions. Montez is determined to buck that trend—to bring work to JHSB that challenges taken-for-granted frameworks, pushes sociology in genuinely novel directions, and creates a buzz.
Third, she is committed to sustaining JHSB‘s gold-standard peer-review process—rigorous, efficient, and constructive—while strengthening the journal’s standards around transparency, replicability, and the responsible use of AI. Integral to this goal will be recruiting deputy editors and editorial board members who bring broad and deep expertise; encouraging authors to make replication code publicly available; clearly defining appropriate use of AI; and modifying the journal’s requirements for reporting statistical significance.
Finally, she is determined to make the journal a more powerful conduit between sociological science and the public, including by encouraging authors to create publicly available summary slides of their studies to be used in teaching, publishing research by scholars across multiple scientific disciplines, and finding new ways to use social media to reach public and policy audiences.
Montez is precisely the type of person we need as editor of the journal at this challenging time for science and especially for sociological science. She will bring her passion for rigorous research, extraordinary ability to keep the trains moving, and dogged determination to get JHSB articles into the public domain for maximum impact. The journal is in extraordinarily capable hands!
Jennifer Karas Montez will serve as editor January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2029.