ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., June 7, 2017 — Dr. Douglas Pisano has been named the founding dean of St. Bonaventure University’s new School of Allied Health. He begins work June 19.
Pisano was most recently (2013-2016) the vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University, with campuses in Boston, Worcester, Mass., and Manchester, N.H.
“When I read there was an opportunity to build a school of health professions at a university as prestigious as St. Bonaventure, I knew I had to apply,” Pisano said. “The university is a proven winner whose team is looking to a long and successful future where the health professions complement an already stellar academic community. I’m excited to be a part of this future!”
Pisano was at MCPHS since 1984 in a variety of roles: professor, graduate program director, associate dean of graduate studies, dean of the School of Pharmacy, interim dean of the Schools of Medical Imaging and Physician Assistant Studies, and associate provost for Pharmacy Education.
“Our new School of Allied Health presents St. Bonaventure with opportunities to continue expanding our undergraduate and graduate academic programming in the health professions,” said Dr. Joseph Zimmer, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at St. Bonaventure.
“We’re fortunate to have engaged a founding dean with the experience of Dr. Pisano. We have great confidence that Dr. Pisano will be able to lead us into the future with our health programming,” Zimmer said.
St. Bonaventure announced in October its intention to create a School of Allied Health to help meet the demand for professionals in the fastest-growing degree program at the undergraduate and graduate levels — allied health professions.
“I appreciate Doug’s ability to move the iceberg and do what others cannot,” said Christine Perry, manager of Pharmacy Recruiting and College Relations at New Albertsons Inc. “He has tremendous ideas, and is a skilled problem solver, always using a common sense approach and getting parties to work together and make the best decision for the whole.”
Pisano received his doctorate in Law, Policy, and Society – Health Policy and Law from Northeastern University (1997); his master’s in Public Affairs from the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston (1989); and his bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from MCPHS (1981).
In February, SBU received state approval to begin offering this fall a bachelor’s degree program in Health Science, which leverages the strengths of existing programs at the university and will serve as a stepping stone to graduate study in the health sciences.
Exact degree offerings at the graduate level and a time frame for implementing those programs are still in development, Zimmer said.
Allied health professionals, who work alongside other healthcare professionals to provide a range of diagnostic, technical, therapeutic and direct patient care and support services, make up about 60 percent of the total U.S. health workforce. Allied health includes such fields as physical therapy, occupational therapy and physician assistant.
