JONESBORO, AR – Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has appointed Shane Speights, D.O., FAAFP, to the Arkansas State Board of Health, the governor’s office announced Thursday.
Speights is the dean of New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM at A-State), a position he’s held since 2017. Speights is also a board-certified family medicine physician and serves as the county health officer for Craighead County and the health director for the City of Jonesboro.
“I’m honored to be appointed to this position, and I’m grateful to Governor Sanders for entrusting me to serve our great state,” Speights said. “As a lifelong Arkansan, the health of our state’s residents is of utmost importance to me, and I appreciate the opportunity to join this team.”
A native of Arkadelphia, Speights earned a business degree from Henderson State University before attending Arkansas State University to obtain his prerequisites for medical school. He earned his medical degree from Kansas City University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his family medicine residency at UAMS Northeast in Jonesboro.
Speights worked diligently alongside Arkansas State University leadership and civic leaders from Northeast Arkansas to establish NYITCOM at A-State, which became just the second medical school to open in Arkansas when it launched in 2016. The medical school operates out of Wilson Hall on A-State’s Jonesboro campus and was created through a private-public partnership between A-State and New York Institute of Technology, which is based on Long Island, New York.
Prior to joining the NYITCOM at A-State faculty, Speights served as the vice president of medical affairs at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro and was a faculty member at the UAMS Northeast family medicine residency program. Speights is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a former chair of the board of deans for the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM).
About NYITCOM at Arkansas State University: New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University, located on A-State’s Jonesboro campus, is dedicated to improving access to health care for the underserved and rural populations in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta Region. Arkansas ranks 48th in overall population health status due to low health indicators including obesity and number of adults who smoke. The state also ranks 46th in the number of active physicians per capita and 39th in the number of primary care physicians. NYITCOM at A-State was established in 2016 with the mission of meeting the need for more physicians in this medically underserved area.
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