Jason Beam, Ph.D.
B.S. Mathematics- Louisiana Tech University 2006
M.S. Health and Exercise Science- Louisiana Tech University 2007
Ph.D. Exercise Science- The University of New Mexico 2013
My name is Jason Beam, and I currently live in Los Alamos, NM. I have a full-time job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as an Occupational Safety and Health Professional. My main responsibility is to oversee the surveillance of the medical fitness programs. In other words, I am the strength and conditioning coach for the Los Alamos Fire Department (LAFD), LANL Hazmat, and LANL emergency response employees. Employees in these three groups are required to complete an annual physical fitness assessment and medical physical. If an individual does not meet a standard for physical fitness, I get to create an exercise program for them to follow and/or personal train him or her to improve their fitness. One of my major responsibilities every year is to design and implement a 24-week strength and conditioning program for the LAFD training academy. In addition to this, I also open our wellness center every day, teach a group exercise class, and give regular presentations to the LANL employees. I have given many presentations, but a few of my favorites are on how to improve body composition, back health, and metabolism.
Before I started my position at LANL in 2022, I was a full-time assistant professor at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) in the School of Fitness Education. I started my position there in the spring of 2014 as an adjunct faculty member. I taught a kinesiology course. A full-time position opened in the fall of 2014, and I applied and received the position! At this time in my life, I was still single with no wife and no children. I had just finished my doctoral studies at the University of New Mexico(UNM) in the summer of 2013. I applied for many assistant professor positions across the United States. I was offered three in-person interviews at three universities, but I was not their chosen candidate. My wonderful mentor at UNM, Christine Mermier, told me about the adjunct faculty position at SFCC, and the rest is history.
Photo of my SFCC exercise physiology class in 2015 outside the hypo/hyperbaric chamber at UNM. My doctoral mentor, Christine Mermier, is the third person from the right. My colleague in the School of Fitness Education, Enita Pendleton,is the second from the left.
While I was an assistant professor at SFCC, I taught many classes such as sports nutrition, exercise physiology, anatomy & physiology, kinesiology, and a beginner’s resistance training class. I enjoyed creating and teaching these courses, and I still teach my anatomy & physiology course as an adjunct faculty member. In the spring of 2016, I bought my first house in Santa Fe, NM. In the summer of that same year, I met my wife. We were engaged in October of 2016 and married in March of 2017. We have been married seven years and have three boys, Joshua (about to turn six), Caleb (will turn three at the end of this year), and Simeon (10 weeks old). In 2018, we sold our house in Santa Fe and bought a house in Rio Rancho, NM. During the COVID pandemic, the exercise science program at SFCC was not doing well. As a result, the program was cut and so was my position. I lost my job there after the spring semester of 2021, and I was unemployed for about six months.
Photo of my wife (Tara), and me.
Photo of my wife (Tara), sons (Caleb and Joshua), and me.
Photos of my three sons (Joshua, Caleb, and Simeon).
In the spring of 2020, Dr. David Szymanski contacted me and told me about an opportunity to design and teach a graduate-level strength and conditioning course for the Tulane University Kinesiology Department. The department chair while I was a graduate student at Louisiana Tech University was Dr. Lanie Dornier. After I graduated with my Master’s degree, Dr. Dornier assumed a the position of Department Chair in the Kinesiology Department at Tulane University. Dr. Szymanski was one of my mentors and professors while I was a graduate student in Health and Exercise Science (now called Kinesiology) at LA Tech. So, there is the connection. I designed the course in the summer of 2020 and taught it for the first time in the fall semester of 2020. I am currently teaching this course.
Soon before I lost my job at SFCC, I met one of my best friends and research partner, Zachary Mang. He was finishing his doctoral studies at UNM, and he taught a class in our department at SFCC. He and I talked about an idea for a research study, and I told him that one of my strengths is statistics and that I would be happy to help you and your fellow graduate students with the statistical analyses for their research so that it can get published. I ended up helping three doctoral students publish three research studies in 2022. After Zachary graduated from UNM, he stared a post-doc position at the LANL wellness Center (where I currently work). He told me about a position that was opening, and I applied. I received and started my position as an Occupational Safety and Health Professional in January 2022.While Dr. Mang was a post-doc at the wellness center, we designed and completed five research studies. We published three research articles regarding firefighter training academy fitness programming, one article on slow and fast tempo squatting, and one article on pyramid resistance training. We also published four research review articles. The link to my Google Scholar and Research Gate accounts are below if you are interested in learning about my research.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ePIVuuIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jason-Beam
My friend and research colleague (Dr. Zachary Mang) and I hanging out at a baseball game in Albuquerque, NM.
I moved to Albuquerque, NM in 2008 to start my doctoral studies at UNM. I grew up most of my life in Bossier City, LA. My dad was in the Air Force and stationed at Barksdale AFB. I graduated from Parkway High School in 2001 and started college in the fall of 2001 at Northwestern State University(NSU) in Natchitoches, LA. I wanted to go there so that I could be in the marching band and on their drumline. I played the snare drum at NSU for two years. My original major in college was physics, but I changed my major to mathematics in 2002.After my second year of college, I decided that I wanted to become an officer in the Air Force. I particularly wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force.
My dad and I at Six Flags in St. Louis, MO in 2002.
I transferred to Louisiana Tech University in 2003 to join Air Force ROTC. I was also in the marching band at LA Tech and played the snare drum for three years from 2003-2005. My major was still mathematics. During the spring of 2004, I learned that I was chosen for a pilot slot in the Air Force, and I was so excited to achieve my lifetime dream. However, I still had one more year to complete in ROTC before I graduated and started pilot school. During the summer of 2004, I went to basic training for ROTC cadets. It is called field training. It was at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX. It was supposed to last two months, but I only stayed for a few weeks. I had bad anxiety from the high-pressured environment and decided to leave. As a result, I had to pay back my ROTC scholarship, and my dream of becoming a pilot in the Air Force was crushed. After I got back home during the summer of 2004, I started having very bad thoughts of hopelessness. I even had thoughts of suicide run through my head. However, I was not going to let the devil steal, kill, and destroy my life! I am so glad that I was filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ when I was 12 years old. I would not be here today if it was not for the life of my precious savior, Jesus Christ, living in me.
Photo of the LA Tech drumline in 2004. I am the fourth snare drummer from the left.
Photo of my ROTC class in at the 2004 Dining Out Ceremony.
Photo of me and four other AFROTC cadets with our commander at the 2004 Dining Out Ceremony.
As a result of the above, I went to see a psychiatrist and he prescribed depression medication. I took this medication for about six months until I started having weird side effects. I decided to wean myself of the medicine at the end of 2004. Since I was no longer going to be in the Air Force, I needed to decide what I wanted to do with my life. My college major was still mathematics, and I was over halfway complete with my coursework. My degree plan for mathematics required me to take several technical writing courses, so I just decided to declare a minor in technical writing. During the winter quarter of 2005, I took an advanced technical writing course. One of the projects we had to complete in this course was to create a technical manual. I did not know what to create, so I sat down with my professor to discuss some options. She asked me what some of my interests were. I told her that I enjoy playing sports, percussion instruments, and flying airplanes. She told me that there was a sports department on campus that taught classes in health and exercise. She said that there may be a professor in that department that has a project you can help with. So, she made some calls to the Health and Exercise Science department to see if this was the case. Sure enough, there was a professor in the department that was working on a project, and she needed help. The professor’s name was Dr. Wendy Miletello (now Thomas). Her and I sat down to chat about the project, and we connected so well on many aspects of health and fitness. She told me that I should consider starting a dual-enrollment program where I start my Master’s degree while currently working on my Bachelor’s degree. I took her suggestion and was accepted into the Master of Science degree program in the Department of Health and Exercise Science in the Spring of 2005. I completed my degree requirements for mathematics in the winter semester of 2006 and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics. One year later, I completed my degree requirements for the M.S. in Health and Exercise Science and graduated in the Winter semester of 2007.
Photo at the 2007 LA Tech College of Education Banquet. I received the outstanding graduate student award for 2006-2007. From left to right are Dr. David Szymanski, Janine Dreckman (my mom), me, and Dr. Wendy Thomas (then Miletello).
My mom and I after graduating with my M.S. in Health and Exercise Science in the winter of 2007.
Between the time I graduated in February 2007 and when I moved to New Mexico in August 2008, I was employed by Dr. Wendy Miletello to help her with two grants. One grant was to provide a summer camp for high school students that taught them kinesiology but also tutored them in subjects they needed help. I was the math tutor. I was also Dr. Miletello’s grant coordinator. At the same time, we were working on another grant for an NIH research study on obesity hosted at the Pennigton Biomedical Institute in Baton Rouge, LA. Dr. Miletello and I were responsible for teaching elementary and middle school teachers how to teach their students about nutrition and fitness.
I am blessed to be where I am in life and to have a wonderful family and career. I have learned during my life that God has a purpose for life, but that it is not always straightforward. I thought I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force, but His thoughts were different. I probably would not have met my wife and have the three handsome boys I do if I followed through with my dream. I am so glad that I listened to God and followed his path for my life. I will end quoting a Bible verse that my friend and Christian mentor, Linda Douglas, brought to me when I was going through my difficult time in 2004. Linda Douglas (my mother’s co-worker) was also the lady who invited me to watch an evangelistic drama called “Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames”at her church in Shreveport, LA in 1995. This is where and when I gave my life to Jesus Christ! “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).”
The Exponential Factor 