Sherril B. Gelmon, B.Sc., M.H.Sc., Dr.P.H.

Chair of Public Administration Division, Professor of Public Health

Contact Information
Email: gelmons@pdx.edu
Office: Urban 670K
Telephone: 503 725 3044
Fax: 503 725 8250

Background

Dr. Gelmon is Professor of Public Health in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.  Her primary teaching is in the Masters of Public Health and Masters of Public Administration programs; she is also a member of the faculty of the Public Administration and Policy doctoral program. 

Teaching Emphasis:  She teaches courses in the theory and practice of health management and policy, with emphases on continuous improvement, planning, program evaluation, organizational behavior, values and ethics, and health systems.  She advises masters and doctoral students with interests in health management, health policy, and health services organizational research.

Administrative Roles:  She served as Coordinator of the statewide Oregon Masters of Public Health program from 1998 to 2000, and was Coordinator of the Masters of Public Health:  Health Management and Policy and of the Masters of Public Administration: Health Administration from 1994 to 2007. She became Chair of the Division of Public Administration in 2008.

Education:  Dr. Gelmon is an alumna of the Pew Health Policy Fellows Program, and received her doctorate in health policy from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.  Her master's degree is in health administration from the University of Toronto, and she holds undergraduate degrees in physiotherapy from the Universities of Toronto and Saskatchewan. 

Previous Positions:  From 1988 to 1994, Dr. Gelmon was the Executive Director of the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration, and Director of Academic Affairs for the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, based in Arlington, VA.  She served as Coordinator of the Planning Directorate for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (1984-1988). Her early professional career included health care planning and evaluation consulting with Woods Gordon Management Consultants (the Canadian affiliate of Ernst and Young), and positions as a staff physiotherapist in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Research Focus

Dr. Gelmon's research has two major areas of emphasis.  The first is on applications of continuous improvement in health services delivery and higher education, particularly with respect to the design and evaluation of educational programs for new health services professionals in disciplinary and interdisciplinary formats.  Her current and recent projects include:
-  Evaluator for the multi-year Northwest Health Foundation initiative addressing the nursing workforce shortage (2003-2009).
-  Leader of the evaluation team assessing the organizational impact of the implementation of electronic health records in safety net clinics, under contract with the Kaiser Community Fund managed by Northwest Health Foundation (2005-2007).
-  Co-evaluator for the Partners Investing in Nursing's Future program, is a national program partnering local philanthropies with nursing workforce leaders, co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation (2006-2013).

Dr. Gelmon has a strong commitment to design and implementation of evaluations of community-based health improvement strategies, and has completed projects in recent years as:
-  Co-evaluator of Project Metamorphosis, addressing alcohol/drug/mental health services for homeless youth (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, Northwest Health Foundation, and Multnomah County).
-  Evaluation consultant to Catholic Charities for their program providing immigration services to victims of domestic violence.
-  Evaluation advisor to the Oregon Partnership for their evaluation of the Oregon Meth Watch program.

Dr. Gelmon's second area of research focus is on the study of higher education policy, with specific applications to institutionalization of community engagement and related teaching strategies. Her current research on engagement relates to institutional strategy and establishment of models of faculty roles and recognition for community engaged scholarship.  Her current and recent projects include:
-  National evaluator for the Community Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, funded by the US Department of Education (2004-2007), and continuing as national evaluator for the Faculty for the Engaged Campus project (2007-2010), both through Community-Campus Partnerships for Health.
-  Co-investigator with Provost Roy Koch on a study of the ten-year impact of Portland State's revised faculty tenure and promotion policies.
-  Principal investigator on a project studying strategies and policies of Australian universities with respect to community engagement.

Dr. Gelmon has been principal or co-investigator on approximately 70 funded research projects during her academic career.  Through these multiple projects, Dr. Gelmon works with community agencies, providers, and graduate students to develop evidence of impact of various educational and health improvement interventions, and assists in the development of relevant program improvement and policy strategies.

Community Engagements/Service

Dr. Gelmon was a Senior Fellow with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco from 1995-2000.  In that capacity she served as Project Director for the Center's Task Force on Accreditation of Health Professions Education (1996-1999).  Dr. Gelmon was a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  She was a member of the Outcomes Advisory Panel of the Accrediting Commission on Graduate Medical Education (1998-2000).  She has served as Examiner, Senior Examiner and Alumni Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program of the U.S. Department of Commerce (2000-2007). She is currently a Judge for the Washington State Quality Award program. She is an annual participant in the Dartmouth/IHI invitational symposium on "Building Knowledge for the Continuous Improvement of Health Professions Education."

She has served as an "Engaged Scholar" with Campus Compact, developing and studying assessment methodologies with national disciplinary associations initiating major efforts in service-learning and civic engagement. She was a member of the team that developed Campus Compact's "Engaged Department" workshop.  She is a Senior Consultant with Community Campus Partnerships for Health; a member of the Campus Compact Service-Learning Consulting Corps; and a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement.  She has served as an improvement advisor to the Care Support and System Innovation program of CareOregon, and is providing improvement and organizational consultation to the Oregon Primary Care Association's Primary Care Home initiative.

Dr. Gelmon was the founding chair of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (2006-2008). She has served as founding Chair of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors, member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation, national Vice-Chair of Grants for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and as a Governor of the Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada.

She currently co-chairs PSU's Human Subjects Research Review Committee, and is a member of the PSU Faculty Senate.  She is a member of the Regent's Advisory Council for Oregon for the American College of Healthcare Executive, and volunteers with the 47th Avenue Farm, a Portland CSA (community-supported agriculture). She serves as an Associate Editor for the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning and for the Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.

Publications & Awards

Dr. Gelmon is a frequent speaker and presenter in both higher education and health professions settings.  She is widely published on a number of topics, and her cv includes citations of 40 books, book chapters and monographs; an equal number of peer reviewed papers and abstracts; and over 60 other papers and technical reports. Each year she gives over 40 invited and/or peer reviewed presentations and training workshops.

She is lead author of the Northwest Health Foundation's handbook on program evaluation and the Campus Compact publication "Assessing the Impact of Service-learning and Civic Engagement", and is a co-author of "The Engaged Department Toolkit" for Campus Compact.  She is the lead author of Community-Campus Partnership for Health's institutional self-assessment methodology, "Building Capacity for Community Engagement."  Dr. Gelmon is recognized as a national scholar on health professions education accreditation, and as a leader in service-learning and community engagement research.  She served as Chair of the Sixth International Service-Learning Research Conference held in Portland in October 2006.

Dr. Gelmon received the Civic Engagement Award for Excellence in Community-Based Teaching and Learning from Portland State University in 2007.  In 2005, she was awarded the Annual Service-Learning Research Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the service-learning research field" at the 5th International Service-Learning Research Conference.  She also received the first Deans' Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Oregon Masters of Public Health Program in Fall 2005.  Dr. Gelmon was also recognized with the College of Urban and Public Affairs Award for Distinguished Service in 2005. She received Honorable Mention for the Ernest Lynton Award for Faculty Professional Service and Outreach in 2001.  She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Association of Schools of the Allied Health Professions in 1998.  Dr. Gelmon is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.