David R. Buys

David R. Buys, PhD, MSPH, CPH, FGSA is the State Health Specialist for the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service and Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Health Promotion at MSU. As a researcher, he examines how food security and nutritional status affects older adults’ health-related outcomes; he has a substantial interest in the role of home and community-based services, including meals on wheels on older adults well-being. He has published nearly 40 peer-reviewed articles, including in such journals as Public Health Nutrition; the American Journal of Public Health; Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences; the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; and the Journal of Nutrition in Gerontology and Geriatrics. In his role as State Health Specialist for the Extension Service, Dr. Buys provides research-based health-related resources to Extension Agents in each of Mississippi’s 82 Counties with a particular focus on the creating healthy home environments, prevention and management of chronic diseases, and substance use prevention and farm stress management among rural populations. Dr. Buys maintains an adjunct appointment in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine’s Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Medicine where he previously served on faculty. He has formal training in medical sociology, health services research, and epidemiology from Mississippi College, Auburn University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham; he is Certified in Public Health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.