The College of Public Health’s (COPH) Department of Health Behavior and Health Education (HBHE) on April 1 welcomed Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., RN, FNP-BC, as primary faculty.

“We are really pleased to have her on board,” said HBHE Department Chair Carol Cornell, Ph.D..

Dr. Bryant-Moore has been at UAMS since 2009, when she took a primary appointment in the College of Nursing. She also previously held a secondary appointment in COPH. She is a registered nurse and family nurse practitioner. She has 17 years of experience of nursing experience in Arkansas, California and North Carolina, caring for children and adults.

”I am excited to join the COPH faculty,” Dr. Bryant-Moore said. “I feel that my research closely aligns with many of the faculty in the college, and I look forward to new and continued partnerships.”

Her work as a family nurse practitioner caring for adults with major depressive disorders motivated her to pursue a research career to better understand the effects of culture, gender and ethnicity on depression.

As a researcher, Dr. Bryant-Moore has honed in on mental illness among minority and rural populations as an area of particular interest. Through her research, she has also explored the effectiveness of faith community-based approaches to addressing mental illness affecting minorities. She has been the principal investigator (PI) on several studies on depression among African-American males, as well as spiritually as a pathway to spiritual and physical health and wellbeing.

Dr. Bryant-Moore has partnered with many organizations in the Arkansas Delta region about the need for more healthcare providers. In 2014, she led the efforts to implement the Growing Our Own in the Delta (GOOD) program which is funded by a HRSA-Nursing Workforce Diversity grant. The GOOD program aims to increase the number of underrepresented master’s degree-prepared nurses, including racial and ethnic minorities, males and first generation college students in the Delta and other rural communities. The program also partially supports the annual Community-Campus Partnership Conference to Address Health Disparities. Dr. Bryant-Moore is currently the PI for a PCORI grant that also supports the conference.

“Through my work over the past several years, I have gained more appreciation for collaborations and partnerships to address depression and other mental health issues,” she said. “These partnerships are vital to overcoming stigma, understanding the emotional needs of communities and access to care.”

Dr. Bryant-Moore is certainly no stranger to the College. She was a co-investigator with HBHE faculty Karen Yeary, Ph.D., the PI for a project, “Faith-Academic Initiatives for Transforming Health (FAITH) in the Delta,” a community-based, participatory initiative to reduce health disparities funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).

HBHE faculty Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., also shares Dr. Bryant-Moore’s interest in reducing mental health disparities among minorities living in rural Arkansas. They worked together on a PCORI-funded project led by Greer Sullivan, Ph.D., MSPH, “Addressing Mental Health Needs of Rural African Americans.” They also worked together on research on how a partnership between rural Arkansas faith communities and the Veterans Administration can promote mental health among military veterans.

Dr. Bryant-Moore also collaborated with Brooke Montgomery, Ph.D., MPH, and Katharine Stewart, Ph.D., HBHE faculty and former faculty, respectively, in research on religion and depression among rural African-American cocaine users.

Dr. Bryant-Moore’s scholarship has been supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation scholars programs, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and a UAMS Translational Research Institute KL2 Career Development Scholar Award, and has also been a fellow of the National Black Nurses Association and NIMHD.

Dr. Bryant-Moore earned her undergraduate degrees in nursing and healthcare administration from the University of Michigan-Flint. She completed a master’s degree in nursing from Duke University and doctorate in nursing from Azusa Pacific University.

As a way to honor Tom Bruce, M.D., who died March 4, the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health (COPH) has established the Thomas A. Bruce, M.D., Endowment in Public Health and Public Service. In addition, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a proclamation on Feb. 26 declaring July 1 as Dr. Thomas A. Bruce Day in Arkansas.

Dr. Bruce was the former Dean of the UAMS College of Medicine (COM), Inaugural Dean (Dean pro tem) of the COPH and Dean pro tem of the Clinton School of Public Service. He also served as the first Director of the COPH Office of Community-based Public Health.

Dr. Bruce passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 85.

Those at UAMS and in the greater medical and public health community who were fortunate to know Dr. Bruce remember him as a true friend, champion and visionary.

“As everyone who knew him can attest, words simply cannot express what Tom meant to everyone whom he touched,” wrote COPH Dean Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., when he informed the College that Dr. Bruce had passed away. “Suffice it to say that Tom was a truly unique and wonderful renaissance man who had unbounded compassion and caring for everyone. He will be deeply missed.”

A week before Dr. Bruce died, Gov. Hutchinson signed a resolution that summarized some of Dr. Bruce’s many accomplishments, thanked him for his leadership to Arkansas and its citizens, and declared July 1 as a day in honor of him, a day that was chosen since it was the day when the COPH was established at UAMS in 2001.

With the blessing and support of Dr. Bruce and his family, UAMS has established the Thomas A. Bruce, M.D., Endowment in Public Health and Public Service to honor and sustain his work in the medical and public health fields through prevention, treatment and public policy. The endowment will strengthen COPH’s ongoing efforts to prepare leaders in public health and public service who serve communities that are predominantly minority, marginalized and without adequate access to health care and preventive services.

Dr. Bruce was born in 1930 in Mountain Home, Ark., where he graduated from high school as class valedictorian. He earned his medical degree from University of Arkansas Medical School in Little Rock. He then trained as a cardiologist. His post-graduate education included a cardiology fellowship at the University of London and executive management training at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School.

After serving as faculty at Wayne State University and Chief of Cardiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, he returned to Arkansas in 1974 to serve as the UAMS COM Dean until 1985. He then served as Program Director for the WK Kellogg Foundation from 1985 to 1997, leading initiatives to improve rural health systems and health care leadership across the country and internationally.

In 1997, Dr. Bruce retired from Kellogg and with his wife, Dolores, returned to Arkansas to care for his aging parents. Soon after, he became a leader in the campaign to found a school of public health in Arkansas. That vision was strongly supported when Arkansans in November 2000 voted to use a portion of Master Tobacco Settlement funds to establish the school.

In early 2001, plans to open the school shifted into high gear, and Dr. Bruce coordinated the effort. At Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson’s request, Dr. Bruce served as Dean pro tem of the COPH until the next year, when Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., was hired as permanent Founding Dean. During that time, Dr. Bruce briefly served as Director of the COPH Office of Community-based Public Health. He went on to serve as the Clinton School of Public Service’s Dean pro tem and then as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

Dr. Bruce continued his support of UAMS and the COPH, particularly as an advisor to Dean Raczynski and in regard to philanthropy. He endowed the Robert C. Walls Professorship in the Department of Biostatistics and contributed funds to UAMS for the construction of a fountain in front of the UAMS Medical Center in honor of Mrs. Bruce, a dedicated and longtime UAMS volunteer, who died in 2013. In 2015, he led the effort to establish an endowed chair in honor of former Surgeon General and UAMS alumna M. Joycelyn Elders, M.D..

For those who knew Dr. Bruce, he will be remembered not only for his leadership and philanthropy, but his wise words, kindness and humility. As UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn said of Dr. Bruce in an email to faculty, staff and students: “He had an immeasurable impact on UAMS and health care in Arkansas. Tom was a tireless worker for good causes … just lived to do good. He was a force of nature to make the world a better place.”