Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor in Community Health
State Extension Specialist, School of Human Sciences, College of Health and Human Sciences
Kansas State University
Elaine Johannes is the Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor in Community Health for Kansas State University and is a state Extension Specialist in the School of Human Sciences, College of Health and Human Sciences. She has extensive experience in working with communities to address chronic diseases (e.g., hypertension, diabetes), health disparities, rural health, mental wellness and support community health worker development. Johannes’ Extension programming builds the capacity for resilience and well-being through community-level approaches. In 2024, she led the implementation of a community health worker (CHW) staffing model for Extension units in rural, frontier locales. That model continues through Kansas’ Rural Health Transformation (RHT) program.
Elaine is a member of the HRSA-funded, five-year Maternal Health Innovations Task Force, the Kansas Maternal and Child Health Council executive committee for the Bureau of Family Health in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Her community work is shared with students as she facilitates applied placement experiences for K-State MPH students, supervises graduate student practicums in her department, and teaches the university’s honor’s program course in rural health.
In 2023, she was the recipient of the Samuel J. Crumbine Medal from the Kansas Public Health Association, selected by the National Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Board of Health and Human Sciences for the National Outstanding Engagement Award, and received the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA USDA), Cooperative Extension and APLU North Central Region Excellence in Extension Award.
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