Danielle Ast, MBA, RD, currently serves as the Project Manager for the Kansas Center for Rural Health.

A native of the Salina area, Mrs. Ast graduated from Kansas State University with degrees in nutrition, kinesiology, and dietetics. Upon completing her internship and earning her Registered Dietitian certification, she began her career in Public Health while attaining an MBA from Kansas Wesleyan University. After moving to Garden City, she managed a public health program in Southwest Kansas for five years and earned her International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Following a move to the Wichita area, Mrs. Ast managed a pediatric clinic for a year. Then she spent four years working as a Project Manager for Wichita State University’s Center for Public Health.

Working in public health in rural western Kansas, Ms. Ast experienced firsthand the struggles and disparities families in rural Kansas experience every day. The impact of a lack of transportation, resources, and adequate time off has on rural Kansan's physical and mental health. Because of these experiences, she is passionate about ensuring all Kansans receive quality care.

Lynn Fisher, M.D., comes to the Kansas Center for Rural Health with a great emphasis in rural health. Dr. Fisher serves as the Associate Director of Service and Education for the Kansas Center for Rural Health. He spent the formative years of his life in Ellis, KS and practiced full-spectrum rural family medicine in the Kansas towns of Great Bend and Plainville prior to his role in academic education.

Dr. Fisher received his undergraduate degree in human biology from the University of Kansas in 1996 and his medical degree from KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 2001. He completed a family medicine residency at North Colorado Medical Center in 2004 in Greeley, CO. Dr. Fisher joined the Wichita Department of Family and Community Medicine in 2019 where he currently serves as the fourth-year rural preceptorship course director, fourth-year director of sub-internships and electives and an assistant director for the third-year family medicine clerkship. In addition, he also is involved with the supervision of residents at the Wesley Family Medicine Residency in Wichita. Dr. Fisher has been through leadership roles with the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, having served as a past president, and currently serves on the Commission for Public Health and Science for the American Academy of Family Physicians. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Hospital Association and the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative and is a past board member of the Kansas Medical Society.

Lucy Kollhoff currently serves as the Program Coordinator for the Kansas Center for Rural Health (KCRH). A native of Western Kansas, she is very passionate about rural community needs. Coming to Salina in 2000, she worked in career development to address rural workforce needs at Kansas State University, Salina campus. In 2010, Ms. Kollhoff accepted the challenge to lay the foundation for the School of Medicine in Salina; continuing as Director of Student Services and Facilities Management until recently accepting the position of Program Coordinator at KCRH.

Ms. Kollhoff received her bachelor's degree from Fort Hays State University. After working in private industry for several years, she returned to Fort Hays State University to obtain her master's degree in counseling, addressing workforce and career pathway needs. She has worked in higher education in the areas of career counseling and coaching, and has been involved in retention, recruitment and placement of students into science, technology, engineering and math careers. She is currently involved in creating awareness of area resources that help individuals to succeed: Salina Initiative for Restorative Justice, Women Helping Women, and Salina Area United Way.

Ms. Kollhoff views the KCRH as a strong advocate for youth to learn about healthcare pathways and to understand workforce needs; and with a desire to return to rural and/or underserved communities. As a lifelong Kansan, she is passionate about preserving the special qualities of rural Kansas life and sees the KCRH as an instrument to remedy existing healthcare disparities.

Dr. Robert Moser, M.D., is the executive director of the KUMC-Salina Kansas Center for Rural Health. He was Dean at the Salina KU School of Medicine from June 2019 until January 2023.

Dr. Moser is a Family Physician with a CAQ in geriatrics. He attended the KU School of Pharmacy, then the KU School of Medicine (KU SOM KC), and completed his residency in Family Medicine at the Smoky Hill Family Practice Residency in Salina, KS. He practiced Family Medicine for 22 years in rural western Kansas. He left a thriving regional rural health system and joined the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, Department of Family and Community Medicine in September 2010, where he served as the Rural Outreach Director.

In January 2011, Governor Brownback appointed Dr. Moser to his cabinet as the Secretary and State Health Officer for the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, a position he served in until December 2014. He left the state health officer role and KDHE to join the faculty at KU SOM-KC and the role of executive director at the University of Kansas Health System for a CMS Innovation Center project, the Kansas Heart and Stroke Collaborative. This CMMI project was awarded to the University of Kansas Health System and continues as the Care Collaborative today, involving more than seventy counties across Kansas. He remains the Medical Director for the Care Collaborative and the CLIA medical director for the state public health lab in Topeka.

Dr. Moser is an associate clinical professor in public health practice with the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Department of Population Health and Department of Family and Community Medicine in Kansas City.

The National Association for Rural Health (NRHA) announced Dr. Moser as their 2023 Louis Gorin Award recipient, an award for outstanding achievement in rural health care. Previous awards given to Dr. Moser include the KAFP Family Physician of the Year in 2006, the Kansas Public Health Association Samuel J. Crumbine Medal in 2015, and the Kansas Hospital Association Donald Wilson Visionary Award in 2019.

Karen L. Weis, PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, serves as the Associate Director of Research for the Kansas Center for Rural Health. Dr. Weis, a professor in the School of Nursing, also holds the Christine A. Hartley Rural Nursing Professorship. She is a native of the Salina area, working with and focusing on research of various health disparities.

Dr. Weis received her baccalaureate from Wichita State University, her masters’ degree in nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch and her Ph.D. in nursing from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Previously, Dr. Weis was professor and the BG Lillian Dunlap Endowed Chair at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX., following a 29-year career in the United States Air Force Nurse Corps.

Dr. Weis’ program of research focuses on perinatal mental health, birth outcomes and associated maternal and fetal physiologic responses. Her work has led to the development of the Mentors Offering Maternal Support (M-O-M-STM) intervention. She has been funded as principal investigator by the TriService Nursing Research Program, DoD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, as well as other federal and professional organizations.

Dr. Weis is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, is on the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses Research Advisory Board and reviews for multiple nursing and interdisciplinary journals.

Dr. Weis has received both military and civilian recognition and honors. Her highest military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal (with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters) and the Aerial Achievement Medal. Other military awards include the United States Air Force’s (Air Education and Training Command) Clinical Researcher of the Year award and the Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Director’s Award, among other clinical and nursing awards. She received the Rebecca Sealy Distinguished Alumnus Award and was inducted into the University of Texas Medical Branch, School of Nursing, hall of fame.