David Douphrate receives 2025 School of Public Health Dean’s Faculty Research Excellence Award

David Douphrate, PhD, has received the 2025 Texas A&M University School of Public Health Dean’s Faculty Research Excellence Award. The honor is awarded annually to recognize both an early-career and a senior faculty member with outstanding research accomplishments.

Douphrate is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health and a faculty expert at the Texas A&M Center for Worker Health. As a senior researcher, he focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of safety training, worksite injury and illness assessment as well as musculoskeletal disorders in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sector with a focus on dairy farm workers. His research is multidisciplinary, linking his expertise in occupational health, physical therapy, business and public health.

He has collaborated with a wide range of agricultural producer operations in many states to gain a deep understanding of industry needs while gaining the trust of industry stakeholders, including business owners, managers and workers. Through these efforts, he has developed a strong reputation as a trusted partner in advancing worker health and safety on farms through research, outreach, translation and dissemination. He also partners with state extension personnel, producer associations, agricultural worker health care organizations, internal and external research collaborators and stakeholders in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors to develop cost-effective solutions that address workplace health and safety challenges.

Douphrate has made significant contributions to more than 34 research projects that have been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). He has published 55 scholarly articles in top-tier journals that have been cited more than 1,800 times in the scientific literature. He has also published in 50 conference proceedings and trade publications. including publishing his research findings in 24 monthly safety articles in the Progressive Dairymen, the nation’s largest dairy trade publication with over 35,000 subscribers.