LeaVonne Pulley, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the COPH Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, is retiring at the end of this month. She will be moving to Texas to be near family. Dr. Pulley joined COPH faculty in 2003.
A farewell reception for Dr. Pulley will be held at 12:30 pm, June 19, in COPH 1202.
During her 30-year career as a health behavior researcher, Dr. Pulley applied her expertise in health communications and survey research methods to myriad public health issues affecting a diversity of populations including racial and ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly, homeless and incarcerated youth, and drug users.
Heart disease and stroke, sexually transmitted disease, smoking prevention and cessation, hypertension, breast and cervical cancer, and obesity are but a few of the subjects upon which her research focused.
In 2005, COPH faculty honored Dr. Pulley with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.
Dr. Pulley also served on national, state and campus taskforces and working groups related to public health communications as well as other issues – student and faculty surveys, the move to a campus no-smoking policy, course evaluations, and much more.
She generously shared her expertise, which meant that COPH faculty and staff and others within UAMS had a reliable in-house expert to turn to. Even the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (AS0) has benefited from Dr. Pulley’s skills. As a volunteer consultant to the ASO, she has helped with the development and implementation of surveys to symphony subscribers, donors, and volunteers.
While at UAMS, Dr. Pulley has taught on the master’s and doctoral levels on public health communications methods, survey research methods and advanced health behavior theory.
A Texas native, Dr. Pulley attended University of Texas-Austin, earning degrees in anthropology and health education and, in 1994, completing a doctorate in communications and health behavior. Before joining UAMS COPH, she worked in research in Texas and served as faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she was an Associate Professor and the Director of the Survey Research Unit of the UAB Center for Health Promotion.