Catawba College

SALISBURY — Catawba College has established a School of Health Sciences and Human Performance and has named Jim Hand, associate professor of health sciences, as its founding dean.

The new school will house majors in athletic training, exercise science, therapeutic recreation, sports management, recreation and nursing. These majors currently enroll 217 undergraduate students.

Hand will be tasked with assisting in recruitment of students, providing oversight to the nursing accreditation process, and developing undergraduate and graduate programs as resources are available. He will work on the nursing accreditation process with new faculty in place in the Department of Nursing, including its new department chairwoman, Valerie Rakes.

Hand joined the Catawba faculty in 2010 as an assistant professor and director of athletic training education. He was granted tenure by the board of trustees in 2014.

Before joining Catawba, he was an assistant professor of motorsport management at Winston-Salem State University; assistant professor of human performance and sports medicine, director of athletic training education, assistant professor of sports sciences, and coordinator of clinical education at California Lutheran University; and assistant professor of sports science and director of athletic training education at Wingate University.

Hand earned his undergraduate degree in recreation management with a minor in sports medicine from Culver-Stockton College, his master’s degree in physical education from Ohio University, and his doctorate in educational leadership from California Lutheran University.

“We’re excited to begin the new academic year with the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance and pleased to have our administration’s support behind this effort,” Hand said. “Although we will be phasing out our athletic training program with the graduates in the Class of 2020, we will continue to serve the athletic community in our other programs — like the sports medicine track that is offered in the exercise science major.

“This track features collaborations with local hospitals, doctors’ offices, occupational and physical therapy offices and the V.A. hospital. In all of our academic program offerings in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, it is important to us that we give back — that’s a big part of who we are as a college with the core values of scholarship, character, culture and service. We want empathetic students who have servant hearts and who are passionate about their academic discipline.”