First F. Douglas Scutchfield Endowed Professor Named

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 1, 2011) — The University of Kentucky College of Public Health. has named Glen P. Mays to the newly-established F. Douglas Scutchfield Endowed Professorship in Health Services and Systems Research. 

Mays is currently professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“Kentucky has become the leading scientific and educational force for using the methods of health services research to uncover how to deliver better public health,” Mays said. “I am honored to join this exciting and growing enterprise at UK.”  

Mays’ research focuses on strategies for organizing and financing public health services, preventive care, and chronic disease management for underserved populations. At UK, Mays will be joining the work of the newly formed National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

At UAMS, he directs the National Program Office of the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks Program that is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This program brings together public health agencies and researchers from around the nation to study innovations and improvements in practice. He also directs the NIH-funded Health Services Research Program of the UAMS Center for Clinical and Translational Research, which organizes research on strategies to improve the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health care across the state.

Mays also serves as a senior fellow at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he leads a Centers for Disease Control-funded study of strategies to improve the public health system’s ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.

Mays, who will transition to UK in the fall, graduated from Brown University in 1992, earned a doctorate and Master of Public Health in health policy and administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy. Prior to joining UAMS in 2004, he was a senior health policy researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. 

“The College of Public Health is grateful to the many donors who established the professorship, which has provided the opportunity to bring someone of Dr. Mays’ caliber as a valued PHSSR researcher to the college,” said Stephen W. Wyatt, dean of the UK College of Public Health.

Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield is the Peter B. Bosomworth Professor of Health Services Research and Policy at UK. He also serves as the director of both the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and the Center of Excellence in Public Health Workforce Research and Policy.

Scutchfield began as an assistant professor in the UK College of Medicine. He later served as the founding professor and director of the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. He returned to UK in 1997, where he was founding director of the School of Public Health.

“It is indeed an honor to have the professorship established in my name,” Scutchfield said. “With his experience and reputation in PHSSR, Dr. Mays is the ideal initial incumbent to hold this professorship.”