Dean of Waters College of Health Professions: Meet Scott Gordon
Scott Gordon, Ph.D., is the new dean of the Waters College of Health Professions at Georgia Southern University. His resume speaks for itself: A robust research background, with academic leadership as associate dean and dean of colleges of health at universities, including the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Kennesaw State University and Arkansas State University, among others.
But, like many students in their senior year, he had no idea what he was going to do with the biology degree he’d just earned from Bowdoin College in Maine.
“I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do,” he admitted. “I could have been a lab technician or done pharmaceutical sales, but none of that interested me.”
His ears perked up when a U.S. Army recruiter came calling.
“I’ve always been a patriotic person, but I never saw myself as being a soldier in the Army,” Gordon admitted. The recruiter worked with him to figure out where his interests lay.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe sports medicine, exercise psychology, things like that,'” he explained. “He called me back the next day and told me they had an exercise physiology lab in Natick, Massachusetts.”
Gordon was impressed with their operation.
“It was human performance testing,” Gordon explained. “Basically, they test how soldiers perform in environmental extremes like high altitude, low temperatures and extreme heat.”
So he signed up and flew through basic training. Before he knew it, he was in the lab, conducting biochemical tests on blood and muscle samples.
“I went from not quite sure what I was going to do to knowing exactly where I was headed,” Gordon said.
He returned to college, earning a graduate degree in exercise physiology from Penn State, followed by a doctoral degree in physiology. After a few years of postdoctoral training, he transitioned to teaching students in 2001.
Gordon has since become intimately familiar with health academia across the Southeast. He said Georgia Southern’s reputation preceded it; once he saw the job posting for dean of the Waters College of Health Professions, he immediately applied.
“Georgia Southern is very well known for its research background,” he said. “But the clinical experiences we can provide students are what really drew me in.”
He’s wasted no time settling in and learning the ropes, while also keeping an eye on the future.
“I’m very happy with the work we’re doing right now,” he said. “But the state of the art is always moving and I’m going to make sure this college moves with it.”
– Bradley Mullis