Wilson Majee, MPH, PhD

University of Missouri – Columbia (MU)

The interdisciplinary nexus of community leadership development, community engagement, and health promotion is the center of my work. My overarching research goal is to explore, identify and implement place-based approaches to health and well-being of those living in resource-limited communities. One longstanding community development challenge is to transform resource-limited areas into sustainable and resilient communities. Unfortunately, the history of community health efforts in impoverished and rural areas has largely been a tale of short-term, top-down, funded projects that disappear when the grant ends, leaving communities jaded and once again under-served. I work to create sustainable, real-world community health initiatives that live on after grants end because they are derived from and driven by the community members themselves. My work closes knowledge and practice gaps using a socioecological approach to multi-level individual, family and place-based factors affecting health and well-being.