The Public Health PBRN National Coordinating Center provides direction and technical assistance to grantees through its program staff, led by Dr. Glen Mays. Additional program guidance comes from the National Advisory Committee.

Project Director

Dr. Glen P. Mays currently serves as a professor and chairman 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 (UAMS). He also serves as director of the Ph.D. Program in Health Systems Research at UAMS, and co-director of the Dr.P.H. Program in Public Health Leadership.

Dr. Mays’ research focuses on strategies for organizing and financing public health services, health insurance, and medical care services for underserved populations. He has led a series of studies examining the institutional and economic factors that influence the availability and quality of public health services. Currently, he is principal investigator of two national studies examining the causes and consequences of recent changes in public health spending levels and delivery systems, and also directs a national effort to develop practice-based research networks in public health. Dr. Mays’ work in health insurance and safety-net care includes economic evaluations of state strategies to expand health insurance coverage and access to care, as well as studies of health promotion and disease management initiatives pursued by private health insurers and employers. Currently, he serves as co-director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded Arkansas Consortium for Health Services Research, where he directs research on access and financing issues.

Dr. Mays has served on health policy advisory committees including those for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and various professional associations and state legislative bodies. He received the Dissertation of the Year Award from AcademyHealth in 2000, and the Article of the Year Award in Public Health Systems Research from this organization in 2007. He has published more than 50 journal articles, books and chapters on his research. Dr. Mays earned an A.B. degree in political science from Brown University (1992), received Ph.D. (1999) and M.P.H. (1996) degrees in health policy and administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health economics at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy (2000).

Assistant Director

Elaine Wootten, M.A., is an Instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health and also serves as the college’s Director of Development. Wootten was Deputy Director of the Arkansas Southern Rural Access Program, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 8-state initiative to increase rural access to health care, in which the College of Public Health and a partnership collaborative targeted a 14-county Arkansas Delta region to recruit health care professionals, develop sustainable rural health networks, provide medical practice management services to improve physician retention, and implement a health care revolving loan fund.

Wootten began her career in public health at the Arkansas Department of Health where she developed its office of employee training programs and later managed a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program for community assessment and development, which is now part of a major initiative to bring health planning to the community level.  She also served as Assistant Director of the Division of Aging and Adult Services at the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Wootten earned an undergraduate degree in Health Care Administration from Arkansas State University, and a Master of Arts in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she is currently a doctoral candidate in Higher Education. She taught public speaking and business and professional communication at UALR and was a communication consultant before beginning doctoral studies.

Program Manager

Sharla Smith, M.P.H., is the Program Manager for the Department of Policy and Management at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health. Ms. Smith holds a Baccalaureate of Science in Biology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and a Master in Public Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Ms. Smith has five years of experience in research and three years of experience in fundraising.

Her past work experience has focused on Biochemistry, Molecular, and Immunology Research, coordinating clinical research studies, survey development and data analysis in the field of Public Health Systems & Services Research and coordinating fundraising activities. Throughout her research experience, she has discovered her passion in the field of Public Health Systems & Services Research.

Project Specialist

Lenora Martindale is currently the Project Specialist for the Department of Health Policy and Management. She is currently seeking a degree in Speech Communications, from the University of Arkansas Little Rock.

Lenora currently coordinates and organizes two projects for the department and brings several years of experience to the table. Her future plans include, but are not limited too, obtaining her degree and contributing her knowledge to the field of developing practice based research networks in public health.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Sylvia Porchia, M.P.H., is a Graduate Fellow for the Department of Policy and Management at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health. Porchia holds a Baccalaureate of Science in Biology from the University of Central Arkansas and a Master in Public Health- Epidemiology Specialty, from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  Porchia has seven years of experience in research.  Porchia’s past research experience has focused on Biological, Neurological, Biochemistry, Molecular, and Immunology Research.  She has been published in the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology. 

Porchia’s areas of public health experience include: Epidemiological and statistical analysis, Study design, Survey/Instrument design and evaluation, data management, hypothesis testing and estimation of population parameters from observed data.  Her public health interests include health disparities, medical care services for underserved populations, HIV, cardiovascular health, community based public health, health policy, organizing and financing public health services.

Porchia is currently in the Dr.P.H. Graduate Program in Public Health Leadership in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).