NYIT Appoints Gordon Schmidt as Dean of School of Health Professions

by Elizabeth Sullivan

Old Westbury, NY (01/31/2019) — Gordon Schmidt, Ph.D., FACSM, has been appointed dean of the School of Health Professions at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) by Vice President for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs, Jerry Balentine, D.O.

Schmidt has served as interim dean of the school for the past six months and has been a member of the faculty and associate dean since August 2017.

Reporting to Dr. Balentine, Dean Schmidt is responsible for providing leadership, guidance, and continuity in matters dealing with accreditation and compliance with national standards; curriculum oversight; faculty mentorship including new faculty development; and administration of operations including enrollment, retention, and budget; strategic planning; and thought leadership. Undergraduate and/or graduate programs in the School include Clinical Nutrition, Health & Wellness, Health Sciences, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Studies.

"Gordon will be charged with expanding our health professions programs as they continue to experience great demand. His other initiatives will include the continued development of our eSports-related degree programs and incorporating exercise and wellness as an integral part of our campus community," said Balentine.

"On behalf of our students, we strive to be at the forefront of scientific knowledge and the cutting edge of health science. As a school of health professions in a technology-infused institution, we are in a unique position to provide an exceptional inter-professional education by combining our strengths with those of NYIT's schools of architecture and design, management, engineering and computing sciences, and medicine, among others," Schmidt explained.

Schmidt has been involved in higher education in the health sector for much of his career. He joined NYIT from William Paterson University, where he was chair, graduate program director and professor in the Kinesiology department for 16 years. He has taught and conducted research on muscular capacity, body composition, metabolic diseases, and coronary risk analysis. He also developed novel undergraduate curriculum and programming in Singapore with a research emphasis on physical health, intergenerational family dynamics as they relate to bone mineral density, and nutritional behaviors.

He received his undergraduate training at McGill University and completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in exercise physiology and anatomy at Indiana University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and certified as a Health Fitness Director. He has published 38 refereed journal papers, 44 conference papers, 26 occasional papers, 5 books and book chapters, and received 14 research funded grants.

About NYIT

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) offers 90 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs in more than 50 fields of study, including computer science, data, and cybersecurity; biology and biomedical studies; architecture and design; engineering; health professions and medicine; IT and digital technologies; management; communications and marketing; education and counseling; and energy and sustainability. A nonprofit, independent, private, and nonsectarian institute of higher education, NYIT welcomes more than 9,000 students worldwide. The university has campuses in New York City (Manhattan) and Long Island (Old Westbury), New York; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as programs around the world.

NYIT embraces its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, give all qualified students access to opportunity, and support research and scholarship that benefit the larger world. More than 100,000 NYIT alumni comprise an engaged network of doers, makers, and innovators prepared change the world, solve 21st-century challenges, and reinvent the future.

For more information, visit nyit.edu/health_professions.

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