After a national search, Lisa Saladin, Ph.D., was recommended for and has accepted the permanent position of dean of the College of Health Professions (CHP).

Dr. Lisa Saladin

The dean selection committee was chaired by Darlene Shaw, Ph.D., MUSC associate provost for education and student life, and consisted of a representative group of faculty and staff members from the college as well as across the MUSC campus. The appointment is contingent upon final approval of the MUSC board of trustees.
With her national reputation in her academic discipline, her exemplary performance during her tenure as CHP executive associate dean and then as interim dean of the College of Health Professions this past year, a strong consensus developed among committee members to recommend offering the permanent position to Saladin. Among many desirable leadership qualities cited by the committee, her collaborative approach to decision-making was highlighted as having a direct and immediate impact on CHP.

Mark Sothmann, Ph.D., MUSC vice president for academic affairs and provost, said Saladin is accorded extraordinary respect for her accomplishments as a faculty member, as evidenced by her numerous honors for her teaching at MUSC and beyond, and her national reputation in her academic discipline of physical therapy.

"Her expertise is further evidenced in her scholarship and through her insightful service to the college, MUSC and on the national level. I am confident she has the skills, the demeanor, and the talent to enhance the prominence the college already enjoys. I believe it is a tribute to the College of Health Professions faculty that a rigorous national search to find the best candidate identified one of their own."

Saladin offers CHP 21 years of diverse and progressive experience in leadership, education and scholarship. She received her bachelor's degree in medical rehabilitation physical therapy and a master's of science degree in anatomy from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her doctor of philosophy degree in physical therapy was earned from Nova Southeastern University, located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

At MUSC, she served as director of the Physical Therapy Education Program; chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences; chair of the Department of Health Professions, responsible for six academic divisions while simultaneously serving as executive academic dean; and as interim dean for the last 10 months.

While serving as director of the Physical Therapy Education Program, she led the design and implementation of an expansion distance education degree program for physical therapy in Greenville that incorporated the use of innovative distance education technology for delivery of the majority of the didactic curriculum. The experience led to her participation on a large training grant as the distance education content expert and to national and local presentations on the use of technology to provide distance education.

Among Saladin's numerous professional accomplishments are:

• Collaborated with two colleges to develop and implement one of the first interprofessional master's degrees in rehabilitation sciences in the United States
• Presented on health care reform and the impact on health professions as chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
• Completed a certificate in Management and Leadership in Education from Harvard University
• Awarded three University Teaching Excellence awards
• Designated a Master Teacher by the MUSC board of trustees
• Recognized by the APTA as the recipient of the national Dorothy E. Baethke-Eleanor J. Carlin Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching
  

Saladin said that MUSC is recognized as having one of the top colleges of Health Professions in the country, with a reputation for educational excellence that is well documented and a commitment to quality clinical care and service.

"We've also grown our research programs exponentially during the last year with the opening of our Center for Rehabilitation Research for Neurological Conditions. I am honored to have been asked to provide the leadership necessary to build on these established strengths and to create novel opportunities for the college in this dynamic health care environment."

Saladin will be MUSC's third female dean. Etta D. Pisano, M.D., became dean of the College of Medicine in 2010, and Gail Stuart, Ph.D., R.N., became dean of the College of Nursing in 2002.

Sothmann said he hasn't conducted a systematic review, but he would venture to guess that MUSC may be the only academic health center nationally that has an equal percentage of female and male deans.

"It is also important to note that while Dean Pisano was recruited from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Dean Saladin worked her way through the ranks at MUSC to her present leadership position. This speaks well for the diversity of MUSC in being able to both attract talented female leaders from other universities while cultivating strong internal leadership."