On September 16, 2022, the AIIAS board voted to appoint Dr. Richard Nelson as the Vice President for Academic Administration effective October 1, 2022. Dr. Nelson has been the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at AIIAS since October 1, 2021. He and his wife, Dr. Anna Nelson, have four sons: Nerik, Billy, Tommy and Michael.
Prior to joining us at AIIAS, Dr. Nelson served for over 30 years in academic administration along with his teaching with Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) and Weimar Institute. Among other positions through the years, he has held the position of Special Assistant to the Dean for Extended Campus programs at LLU, Vice President for Medical Affairs at Weimar Institute, Associate Dean and Department Chair at Inaya Medical College in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Director of the Saudi Campus of Loma Linda University Health, and Program Director of Respiratory Care at LLUH.
Dr. Nelson has worked successfully on multiple accreditations both academic and professional, and has recently served as a chairman for an accreditation team with the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; he has also been honored with the LLUH Institutional Accreditation Award for his self-study preparation for the 2020 WASC Senior (the regional accreditation entity for the western United States), and for achieving the 1st university on the West Coast of the USA to receive the APEX award of excellence from the American Association for Respiratory Care (2021). Dr. Nelson has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award and School Alumnus of the Year by the LLUH School of Allied Health Professions.
In addition to obtaining sponsorship support for AIIAS this past year and co-leading the project with Dr. Pavel Zubkov to bring displaced Ukrainian students to AIIAS, Dr. Nelson has also served as interim chair of the Public Health department and has led in a revision of curriculum to prepare their graduates to sit for the international exams for CPH and CHES certifications.
We welcome Dr. Nelson to the VPAA role on October 1, and we want to express deep appreciation to Dr. Samuel Gaikwad and Dr. Ricardo Gonzalez for their excellent service as interim VPAAs over the past year since Dr. Dolf Oberholster left for Middle East University.
