Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient for Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Each year, the Office of Alumni Affairs at the Hudson College of Public Health awards an annual Distinguished Alumni Award and Young Alumni Professional Achievement Award to outstanding alumni from each Department within the College. Recipients of these prestigious awards are recognized for achieving professional and personal successes, and demonstrating exemplary service to their community and/or the University.

The 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology is Mr. Cuyler Snider!

Cuyler earned his MPH in 2008. Cuyler has an impressive career as a public health professional with significant contributions to tribal health disparities, data collection, linkage and analysis, and building tribal health capacity. Cuyler is the Deputy Director for the Oklahoma Tribal Epidemiology Center (TEC), a division within the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board (SPTHB). Cuyler has spent his entire professional career at the SPTHB where he began as a research assistant while earning his degree.

Upon graduation, they immediately hired him as an epidemiologist, and he has progressively assumed additional leadership roles since then. As the Deputy Director for the TEC, a position Cuyler has held since 2013, he is the PI and has responsibility for leading several state and federally funded cooperative agreements aimed at health promotion and disease prevention within Native American communities. In this role, he provides leadership, grant writing and management, data collection and analysis, program and training coordination, and directs data linkage projects. He has a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at local, regional and national conferences.

Cuyler serves on a number of local, regional, and national working groups and committees. Notably, he was Co-Chair of the National Tribal Epidemiology Center Data Access Working Group from 2016-2017. As the Deputy Director of the TEC, he has worked with nearly all tribes within Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas in some capacity. He is committed to working with the AI/AN population to ensure that there is improved access to quality data, better funding for programs to target the needs of these communities, and ultimately advances in the health, quality of life, and wellbeing of AI/AN communities.

Cuyler also routinely collaborates with faculty and programs within the Hudson College of Public Health. He has served as a practicum host site and preceptor for a number of students; as a co-investigator on a number of grants led by BSE faculty; and as a co-author on BSE-related publications and presentations.

Cuyler is an outstanding alumnus. His distinctive service and dedication to the health of American Indian communities is noteworthy. He is an outstanding representative of our BSE MPH epidemiology program, and most deserving of this award.