In 1981 he joined the faculty of the Department of Health Education at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale as an assistant professor.
While at SIUC he studied epidemiology under Robert Gold, David Duncan, and other notables.
CBPM is an example of community-based participatory research that blends social marketing theories and techniques and community organization principles to guide voluntary health behavior change.
In addition, Dr. McDermott is on the editorial board of the Journal of Health, Environment and Education (Germany).
He was a founding Fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior and has served as its President.