Leeper, James
James Leeper, Ph.D.
Professor
College of Community and Health Sciences
The University of Alabama
(205) 348-1355
Dr. James (Jim) Leeper earned his Ph.D. in 1977 in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health (biostatistics), University of Iowa. Upon graduation, he joined The University of Alabama School of Medicine – Tuscaloosa Program, Department of Community Medicine. From 1987 through 2001 he was chairman of Behavioral and Community Medicine (renamed Community and Rural Medicine in 2001) at Alabama and continues as a professor, Rural Programs Director of Education and Evaluation, and Charter Senior Investigator in the Institute for Rural Health Research. He is also a faculty member of the Applied Statistics Program, the Ph.D. Program in Health Education/Health Promotion, and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Health Behavior, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He received the National Alumni Association of The University of Alabama Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award in 1995 and the 2003 Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Public Health, University of Iowa.
Dr. Leeper is on the six-member board of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) Rural Medical Educators Group, an influential contributor to the development of rural medical education policy and programming, and he is host and planning chair for a this group’s policy and research meeting in February , 2008, at The University of Alabama. He is also involved in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Pre-Doctoral Education discussions with medical student educators from around the United States involved in teaching family medicine and community medicine to share innovative teaching methods and ways to train and involve on-campus faculty and off-campus preceptors.
Dr. Leeper is Chair-elect of the Statistics Section, American Public Health Association, a highly visible professional organization with strong voice in health policy, and has been very active in the APHA, serving on the Program Development Board (chair from 1994-97), Joint Policy Committee (co-chair from 1994-97), Science Board (1997-2000), Education Board (1999-2003) and Governing Council (2000-2001). He was chair of the Section on Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences in the American Statistical Association during 2003.
He has published over 65 referred articles, co-authored four book chapters, and co-authored more than 90 paper presentations/posters. Much of his work deals with rural health issues, including community-based program evaluation. Statistical methodology work has dealt with missing data problems in longitudinal analysis and spatial/temporal analysis. He directs the Rural Medicine rotation for third-year medical students, during which the students do community health assessments and investigate specific rural health issues with the goal of suggesting solutions to the communities.