Dr. Strayer received his medical degree and completed residency (VCU Hanover Family Medicine Residency program) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and subsequently was a founding faculty member for a military-civilian residency at Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, Illinois.  He completed his Masters of Public Health at St. Louis University and began conducting research on smoking cessation and health behavior change in primary care settings.  In 2005, he was a recipient of an American Cancer Society Cancer Control Career Development Award.

Prior to joining the faculty at the VCU School of Medicine as the Harris-Mayo Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Dr. Strayer was a professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of South Carolina (UofSC) School of Medicine in Columbia. During his tenure, he served as both vice-chair and interim chair for this department. Before that, he was a tenure-track faculty member in the University of Virginia’s Department of Family Medicine for 10 years.  There, he co-founded and directed the university’s first formal practice-based research network, the Virginia Practice Support and Research Network (VaPSRN), from 2001-2011 and was associate fellowship director for a clinical faculty development fellowship.

In October 2021, Dr. Strayer retired from the military following decades of service, most recently as a colonel in the Air Force Reserves.  He served as professor at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, advising the chair on tenure and promotion for 17 military family medicine residencies across the United States.

He has significant experience developing innovative approaches to promote behavior change in primary care settings.  He has developed several NIH-funded computer-assisted tools to enhance smoking cessation, decrease alcohol abuse and misuse, and to address poor diet and sedentary lifestyles.  These tools have been evaluated in dozens of primary care practices in Virginia and South Carolina. He has also conducted research leveraging social media to promote behavior change and created a national registry for smokers that links them to other smokers for social support and to evidence-based social media tools.  His current work includes the development of decision aids for lung cancer screening and smoking cessation as well as translational research focused on cancer disparities. He is also co-investigator on a $2.9M NIH grant to study the role of circadian factors in inflammation and colorectal adenoma risk. In addition, he was recently awarded a U.S. patent for a smart watch that can detect smoking gestures to assist smokers with quitting.

Dr. Strayer has taught medical students and residents throughout his career and has received several awards for these efforts, including being elected to the prestigious Academy of Distinguished Educators at the University of Virginia while on faculty there.