College of Health and Human Services selects new associate dean for academic affairs
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Neale Chumbler has been named associate dean for academic affairs in Western Michigan University’s College of Health and Human Services. He completed his doctoral studies in Sociology at Case Western Reserve University, then completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in health services research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)---Little Rock, Arkansas VA Medical Center.
Chumbler has held teaching and research roles throughout his career in higher education. Prior to his administrative career, he transitioned from an Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy in the College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida. Then, over the past 16 years, Dr. Chumbler has held extensive administrative leadership positions that included institutions across a range of institutions (e.g., R1 to R2) most recently serving as the Executive Associate Dean and Chair of the Department of Diagnostic and Health Sciences in the College of Health Professions at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN.
As an experienced strategic planner that has amalgamated both visionary leadership and tactical management approaches, Neale is known for his commitment to expand opportunities for students to access higher education. To that end, Chumbler has collaborated with faculty and staff in the development and implementation of a total of 13 new high quality academic programs (four undergraduate and nine graduate). In addition to his commitment to augmenting access for students by building new academic programs, Neale has overseen units that have achieved enrollment milestones with increased new students (an average of 8.7%). By leveraging this expertise, he is committed to advancing the national profile of both WMU and CHHS by strengthening excellence in academic programs, and student success by his commitment to retention excellence. He has overseen undergraduate retention rate improvements across all classes, particularly the first-to-second year retention rates. In addition to his administrative career, he exemplifies the teacher-scholar model in that he has developed 15 different undergraduate and graduate courses and mentored multiple undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral research fellows in their respective programs of studies.
Chumbler’s research interests include the implementation, evaluation, and application of health information technology, clinical informatics interventions and telehealth technologies to improve access to and quality of care as they pertain to patient-centered outcomes for community dwelling older individuals with multiple chronic comorbidities. His work in implementation science has assisted policy makers and planners in the design and/or redesign of infrastructure and processes of healthcare delivery services, interventions, and programs. He has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator of 31 funded grants and a co-investigator/collaborator on an additional 25 funded grants, for a total of over $32 million. He has been funded by multiple sources, including, but not limited to the National Science Foundation, US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Chumbler has a h-index of 45 according to Google Scholar and has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and reports and more than 135 presentations at scientific and health care meetings.