Staff
The number of OPHI staff expands and contracts depending on the size and need of current projects. The current OPHI staff are listed below:
Dr. Dalen Duitsman, Director
Dr. Duitsman received his doctorate in Health Education/Public Health and his M.S. from Indiana University located in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his dual undergraduate degrees in Health Education and Physical Education from William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.
Prior to his arrival at Missouri State University in the fall of 1996, he was a Health Studies faculty at Iowa State University. During his tenure there he helped revise the Community Health Education curriculum and was instrumental in the growth of the program. At Missouri State, he implemented and administered the M.S. in Health Promotion and Wellness Management graduate program and also developed, implemented and administered the Master of Public Health program.
In February of 2001 Dr. Duitsman was appointed by the Board of Governors to serve as Director of the OPHI. In this position he has served as the principal investigator of numerous contracts and grants that have focused on solving community public health issues in Missouri. He has been successful in uniting university resources and community stakeholder resources to develop and implement targeted interventions to address community health related needs. Dr. Duitsman’s expertise also extends to creation of partnerships and coalitions. He is known in the state for his leadership on state-wide, regional, and local boards, committees and coalitions. He is the Immediate Past President of the Missouri Institute of Community Health, serves on the board of the Missouri Public Health Association, and is on the executive committee for the Transforming the Future of Public Health in Missouri initiative.
Project Staff
Dr. Joseph Hulgus, Deputy Program Director
Data Analysis, Project Evaluation and HRA Development
Dr. Hulgus is responsible for the design, implementation, evaluation, and reporting for the process and outcome evaluations of the SOARHigh project. He is also the lead in developing and evaluating a new Health Risk Assessment tool for use specifically with rural youth. This will include not only the initial development but validation of the instrument as the project proceeds. Lastly, Dr. Hulgus will be designing, developing, and deploying the mental health wellness modules and components for this project.
Dr. Joseph Hulgus is a licensed psychologist and received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Texas Woman’s University, Master of Public Health degree from Missouri State University (MSU) and Bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University – Evansville. He has worked with the MSU Ozarks Public Health Institute (OPHI) as research and program evaluator for the last 14 years. Dr. Hulgus is also a Professor of Counseling at Missouri State University with 30 plus years of experience working in a wide variety of contexts as a counseling psychologist, research psychologist and public health researcher.
Jaci McReynolds, MHA, Communications
McReynolds’ passion is to help Missouri’s local public health agencies maximize their impact and clearly communicate the value of public health in assuring longer, healthier lives, and richer communities for all of us.
McReynolds contributes communication and graphic design expertise to the tobacco program evaluation work at Ozarks Public Health Institute. She also coordinates communication efforts for the statewide grassroots initiative, #HealthierMO, engaging stakeholders in systems change in order to achieve a stronger, more resilient and responsive public health system.
For more than two decades, she has worked within Missouri’s public health system, focusing on improving communication, collaboration, and efficiency. Her company, Impact Advantage, LLC, offers communications and marketing assistance, emergency planning, website development and administration, grant management, social media management, health literacy training, and other consulting services to support public health agencies in Missouri.
McReynolds is an adjunct instructor for Drury University’s College of Continuing Professional Studies, in the Emergency Management Bachelor of Science program. She also welcomes periodic opportunities to guest lecture at Missouri State University in the Masters of Public Health program.
McReynolds has a background in film and television news, with experience in continuity, development, television news production, and photojournalism. She spent several years building crisis communication skills among 35 local public health agencies in southwest and south central Missouri. She also served four years as a local public health administrator in rural Missouri. She actively participates in regional and state-level collaboratives and advisory groups.
Dr. Todd Daniel, Statistician
Dr. Todd Daniel is a statistician and academic researcher with a specialization in statistical methodology and research design. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and most recently served as the lead evaluator of the #HealthierMO Transforming the Future of Public Health initiative. He has worked with the Ozarks Public Health Institute on projects since 2015. He has done analyses for academic, medical, and business research, served on numerous doctoral dissertation committees, and directed a research institute before starting his own statistical consulting business. He has extensive experience designing academic research projects, collecting data, analyzing data, and interpreting the results. He has published multiple academic articles in peer-reviewed journals and hosts a popular YouTube channel Research By Design about statistics.
Karen McKinnis, Program Director, Missouri Health Disparities Initiative
Pam Dudley, MHA RN, Project Coordinator
Research Fellows
Dr. Maxwell A Barffour
Dr. Barffour received his PhD in International Health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He has MPH with a Epidemiology concentration from Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. His BS in Biochemistry and Nutrition was received from the University of Ghana.
After obtaining his PhD in International Health, and before arriving at Missouri State University, Dr. Barffour was at the University of California Davis in Davis, California for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. He has received many awards and honors including the 2015 Young Scientist Participant from Nobel Laureates Meeting, the DSM Doctoral Research Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University in 2014, the Federik Bang Immunology Research Award from Johns Hopkins University in 2012, and others.
At Missouri State, Dr. Barffour has taught courses such as Epidemiology, Clinical and Experimental Study Designs, Biostatistics in Health Science, Health Behavior, and Public Health Field Experience. His expertise as a global health epidemiologist is in maternal and child health research and programming. His research primarily involves community based clinical trials and programs designed to address the adverse effects of micronutrient deficiencies or overdose on infections, inflammation, anemia, and physical or neurocognitive growth and sleep outcomes. His research is implemented across several countries including Laos, Zambia, Ghana, India and the United States. Many of Dr. Barffour's studies and clinical trials have been published.
Graduate Assistants
Samantha Kollmeyer, Project Facilitator
Samantha Kollmeyer is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Missouri State University and has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Mizzou. Samantha is currently a graduate assistant at the Ozarks Public Health Institute working as a project facilitator for the MO COVID-19 Health Disparities Grant. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, reading, and spending time with friends and family.