About

I am an associate professor in the Hudson College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma (download my CV here). Trained as a political scientist, my research focuses on public health policy and on the development of public health systems.

I have extensive leadership experience, including as a two term president of the Oklahoma Public Health Association (OPHA), a statewide non-profit organization, as Co-Director of the Center for Health Outcomes, Research, and Policy at the Hudson College, and as Chair of the Hudson College’s Faculty Board. In addition, I led the development of the Hudson College’s forthcoming PhD in Health Policy program as well as the MPH in Health Policy.

My research has been published in outlets including the American Journal of Public Health, Policy History, JAMA, Studies in American Political Development, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). My article “Linking Public Health and Individual Medicine” received the Paper of the Year Award from the American Public Health Association and the American Journal of Public Health.

My article “Eliminating Malaria in the American South,” with George Mohler, was featured in the American Public Health Association’s book Public Health Then and Now: Landmark Papers from AJPH. My book, Health Divided: Public Health and Individual Medicine in the Making of the Modern American State, offers a reinterpretation of the foundations of modern American health policy, focusing on the divergence between policy regimes dealing with public health and with individual medical care.

My current book project, “Governing Health,” examines the fracturing of US public health systems in the modern era and challenge of building institutions capable of confronting both chronic disease and acute threats. Additional ongoing research includes projects on disaster response and governance, Opioid Use Disorder, and Global HIV/AIDS.

I am involved in the ongoing Global Oral History of PEPFAR project at SMU and am also actively engaged in public health workforce training within Oklahoma and as part of the Region 6 Public Health Training Center and the Region 6 Center for Health Security and Response.

My research on malaria was featured in a piece on NPR’s Morning Edition.