Biography

Elaine Johannes is the Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Professor in Community Health for K-State Research and Extension and is a state Extension Specialist in the Department of Applied Human Sciences, College of Health and Human Sciences at Kansas State University. She has extensive experience in working with communities to address health disparities, unequal access to health care, and the social drivers and conditions that impact people’s health and well-being. Johannes’ Extension programming builds the capacity for resilience and well-being through community-level approaches. Beginning in 2024, she led the and implementation of a community health worker (CHW) staffing model for Extension units in rural, frontier locales.