Bryant Smalley, PhD, PsyD, MBA is the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Rural Health and Professor of Public Health in
the College of Health Sciences. He also serves as the Associate Vice President for
Research within the University. A licensed clinical psychologist by training, Dr.
Smalley has focused his career on community-based research designed to improve health
and wellness outcomes in rural communities. He has been PI of more than $21 million
in grant funding focused on rural health, including Center of Excellence funding through
the National Institutes of Health, as well as other funding from the Health Resources
and Services Administration, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the
Commonwealth Fund, AARP, and others. At University of Wyoming, Dr. Smalley serves
as PI of the federally-funded Community Health Worker Training Consortium, which is
establishing a statewide training program for community health workers (CHWs) while
also examining the impact that CHWs have on health outcomes within rural communities.
Prior to coming to the University of Wyoming, Dr. Smalley served as the Associate
Dean for Research in the rural-focused Mercer University School of Medicine where
he was responsible for growing and supporting research across the full biomedical
research spectrum. He also previously served as the founding Executive Director of
the Rural Health Research Institute (an NIMHD Center of Excellence) at Georgia Southern
University where he was responsible for building interdisciplinary research teams
to grow rural health research at the University. He has mentored dozens of faculty
via mentoring programs ranging from seminar-style workshops to federally-funded multi-year
career development and grantwriting mentoring initiatives intended to diversify the
rural health research workforce. Dr. Smalley has received significant recognition
for his rural health work, including being the recipient of each of the Outstanding
Researcher of the Year, Outstanding Educator of the Year, and Outstanding Program
of the Year awards from the National Rural Health Association. He has published over
70 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as 5 books, including
the texts Rural Mental Health, Rural Public Health, and Health Equity.
