Rate My Professor Janie Leary

Janie Leary is a Professor of Community Health Promotion in the Health Science faculty at Fairmont State University, where she serves as Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Science in Community Health Promotion. This program equips students with skills to assess community health needs, plan and implement programs, conduct research, communicate health information, and act as health resource persons, offered in a HyFlex format. Leary earned her Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences from West Virginia University (2007-2011), M.P.H. in Public Health from Armstrong State University (2002-2005), and B.S.W. from Georgia State University (1994-1995). She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP). Her career at Fairmont State University began as an Assistant Professor in the School of Education in August 2013, advancing to her current professorial role in the College of Liberal Arts, Behavioral Sciences department. Leary maintains an office in 127 Hardway Hall and contributes to library research guides on Assurance of Learning, Behavioral Science, Community Health Promotion, HyFlex teaching, and the Healthy Campus Initiative.

Leary's research specializations encompass health promotion, preventive medicine, health education, epidemiologic studies, teaching and learning, professional development, academic writing, and assessment, with over 215 citations across 22 publications. Key peer-reviewed works include "Video Intervention to Increase Perceived Self-Efficacy for Condom Use in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Female Adolescents" (2017), "Barriers to Parent Support for Physical Activity in Appalachia" (2016, Journal of Physical Activity and Health), "Predicting Age of Sexual Initiation: Family-Level Antecedents in Three Ethnic Groups" (2015), and "Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Problem-Solving Intervention Addressing Barriers to Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Behaviors in 3 Underserved Populations: Colorado, North Carolina, West Virginia, 2009" (2014, Preventing Chronic Disease). In 2020, she received an Open Educational Resources (OER) grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to modernize The Cancer Institute’s "Making Health Communication Programs Work" for her Communication Techniques for Health Promotion course, integrating social media, smartphones, diverse examples, and an electronic toolbox. Leary is a Quality Matters (QM) Peer Reviewer and supports assurance of learning efforts at the institution.