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MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University has a new source for health-related programs.
David R. Buys began his new position as an Extension health specialist and researcher with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station on May 1. He previously worked as instructor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Buys is very familiar with the Extension Service. As a young person, he attended homemakers meetings with his grandmother in Rankin County. He also participated in 4-H’s Rankin Youth Leadership program as a junior in high school and in 4-H program development as a graduate student at Auburn University.
Buys will work with Extension agents throughout Mississippi to develop health-related programs focused primarily on obesity and obesity-associated diseases. Buys plans to continue to research nutrition, aging and obesity.
Buys also will study the role communities play in health promotion.
Buys received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Mississippi College, a master’s degree in sociology from Auburn University and a Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He earned a graduate certificate in gerontology and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health services and outcomes research funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and National Institutes of Health.