by KARA SCHWEISS
For the better part of a decade, Kailey Snyder was a student, first at the University of Iowa, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in ethics and public policy, and then back to her hometown and UNO for a master’s degree in health, physical education and recreation followed by a doctorate in physical activity in health promotion. She’s been able to use the title of “Dr.” since 2019, but Snyder is still in the classroom — as an assistant professor of public health/health behavior at UNO’s School of Health and Kinesiology.
“I did my Ph.D., and then I went into faculty positions. I was at two other academic institutions for a few years before I came back to UNO,” she said. “I was really trying to find that right balance between teaching, research and service.”
Snyder’s impressive path in academia actually had a small detour between her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she said.
“When I first got out of college, I was working as a health coach, and I really thought that was the field I wanted to stay in, that I wanted to be in health promotion, probably in the worksite wellness side of it,” she said. “I knew a master’s degree would help, but I had no interest at all in research. Then I got a graduate assistantship and I started the master’s program.”
And then came a surprise: “I fell in love with research, and pretty quickly, I’d say… I knew by the end of the first year that I wanted to get a Ph.D., and then it kept going from there.”
Snyder’s behavioral health research includes postpartum health and early childhood development, and she’s published several dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and been cited as a content expert in multiple media outlets. She regularly provides program evaluation for projects related to early childhood health and well-being as well as parental health.
“A lot of my work is directly embedded with different community partners in town. So, traveling around town to various organizations that are either associated with maternal child health or early childhood, getting to be in meetings where we’re bouncing off ideas and building new programs together, and then getting to see those programs come to fruition in Omaha—the place I grew up—is really fun and valuable,” she said. “I feel like I get to see fruits of my labor more so in this role, in this community, than maybe (I would) in other places or larger cities. A lot of the times I get to see the changes made, and then hopefully see the positive impacts follow.”
It’s also a nice juxtaposition being on the other side of the lectern, Snyder said. Now she gets to be the mentor and provide the same kind of scholarly and career guidance she was once given.
“I really like when I have a student that’s interested in research and gets an idea in their head and puts energy into it, drives the bus on their own research agenda,” she said. “That brings me a lot of joy.”
