ODU APPOINTS DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES
Andrew Balas, professor of health policy at Saint Louis University, has been appointed dean of the College of Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, announced Provost Thomas L. Isenhour.
His appointment, pending Board of Visitors' approval, will begin August 25.
Balas has served as the dean of public health at Saint Louis since 2002. Under his leadership, the school achieved the highest enrollment, largest faculty and staff size, lowest ratio of students per faculty, record new contracts and grant awards, and largest corporate donations in the school's history.
Prior to that position, he was the Weil Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and director of the European Union Center at the University of Missouri.
With more than 100 publications, including peer-reviewed scientific articles, textbooks and presentations, Balas has also published reviews and editorials in the Journal of the American Medical Association, British Medical Journal and Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, among others. During the past decade, he has been responsible for $10 million of externally funded research as principal investigator/project director.
In 1998, Balas served a Congressional Fellow and worked on health care legislation for the Public Health and Safety Committee of the U.S. Senate. Additionally, he has served on several expert panels of the Institute of Medicine, state government committees and sections of the National Institutes of Health.
Balas is a member of the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, board of directors of the American Medical Informatics Association, and the steering committee of the eHealth Initiative. He is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.
Balas received an M.D. from Semmelweis University and a master's degree in applied mathematics from Eotvos University, both in Hungary, and a Ph.D. in health informatics from the University of Utah School of Medicine.