Health educator Timothy K. Behrens has been named dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the fifth dean since the college’s inception in 1974.
Behrens comes to UWM from Northern Arizona University, where he was a professor and chair of the Department of Health Sciences.
He brings a variety of administrative experiences to the position. At Northern Arizona University, Behrens increased extramural proposal submissions, developed new revenue sources for graduate student education with community partners, and created programs with unique service-learning components. He also has participated in several leadership initiatives in both Arizona and Colorado, and served on a team of Arizona researchers investigating best practices for team science.
Behrens’ research interests include physical activity measurement, community wellness, K-12 physical activity, and the development of research teams to address systemic problems. He is one of the researchers analyzing the effect and implementation of a groundbreaking “unhealthy food” tax by the Navajo Nation at stores on reservation lands.
“I envision the college as a thought leader and place of innovation for rehabilitation sciences, prevention of human disease, increased human performance, biomedical and laboratory sciences, and improved health care administration and informatics,” Behrens said. “Our initial focus will be to define a unified vision that accurately describes academic programs, and ourfaculty and staff expertise.”
Behrens completed his doctoral degree in health promotion, with biostatistics as a secondary focus, at the University of Oklahoma.
After completing his doctoral degree, he was a fellow of the Physical Activity and Public Health Postgraduate Course on Research Directions and Strategies, sponsored by the University of South Carolina and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He earned his master’s in health promotion at the University of Houston and has been of the faculty at the University of Utah, Kansas State University and the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
He is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and a research fellow of SHAPE America.
