Message from the Dean
Michael W. Prewitt, PhDDean, College of Health Professions
The College of Health Professions (COHP) is the largest college at Marshall University with over 20 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, nearly 100 faculty members and over 2,400 students. I believe engaging COHP faculty and students in partnership with other colleges can allow for more robust research activities and obtaining grants, contracts and training awards with the right vision, incentive and leadership.
Given the mission and goals developed by COHP, we need to work on fostering research culture as well as the development and implementation of research organizational structure. Looking at the next five years (2018-2023), there are several challenges and opportunities to be addressed by the COHP to achieve strategic goals in engaging in state-of-the-art research activities, contracts, training and generating grants.
For this to happen, I am welcoming Dr. Girmay Berhie as an Associate Dean of Research. He will have the responsibility to work with faculty and students in developing grants, contracts, training and managing of these grants as well as their implementation. I believe that Dr. Berhie has the wealth of experience to oversee the grant activity of the faculty and students. I am confident he will provide a visionary leadership and strategic direction for the research mission in our college and for the growth and sustainability of quality research and scholarly activities.
Dr. Berhie’s leadership activities will include scholarship and research program development, externally funded grants, research training programs, faculty and student mentorship and programs development to support faculty and student research development. He will also play a critical role on the leadership, vision, and strategic planning for COHP to have a significant impact on the critical need for increasing the share of funding from Marshall University Research and sponsor program.
Message from the Associate Dean of Research
Girmay Berhie, PhD
Associate Dean of Research
Chair & Professor of Health Informatics
Office: 107 Gullickson Hall (Main Campus)
Phone: 304-696-2718
Email: berhie@marshall.edu
Dr. Girmay Berhie serves as Associate Dean of Research for the College of Health Professions (COHP). Dr. Berhie joined Marshall University faculty in 1991 and is the program founder, chair, and tenured professor of Health Informatics. He was also one of the founders of the undergraduate and graduate Public Health programs at Marshall University. The Health Informatics program is the only program of its kind in the State of West Virginia accredited by CAHIIM. He has also developed two online Graduate Certificate programs in Nursing Informatics and Data Analytics beginning in Fall 2018. Both these Graduate Certificates and the Master’s of Health Informatics are designated as STEM programs. Dr. Berhie received a Master’s in Social work from St. Louis University, a Master’s of Science in Information Systems from the Division of Computer science, Marshall University, and his Doctorate in Public Policy and Analysis with a concentration in Research Methodology from St. Louis University. He has also taken several courses such as Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Outcome and Effectiveness Research Regression Analysis in Public Health at John Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Berhie has specialized and now lectures in the following areas: biostatistics, data analytics, EHR implementation, population health, Tableau, Power BI, revenue cycle management, and research methodology. Dr. Berhie’s experience includes holding a position as the former Director of West Virginia Statistical Center where he successfully wrote and was awarded grant funds from the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute of Health. He has served as the Project Director, Principal Investigator, Project Researcher, and Independent Evaluator for numerous grants from NIH, DOL, NIJ, and SAMHSA. He is currently serving as the Project Director for the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program at Marshall University.
Dr. Berhie is the former Executive Director of the not-for-profit organization, “International Medical & Academic Alliance (IMAA)”. IMAA has developed a partnership with Florida Hospital Corporation. As former Executive Director, Dr. Berhie applied to the US-AID program for $3.5 million to support the expansion of healthcare in Ethiopia but was rejected. This project expansion is still under development. Dr. Berhie has published many articles in the following peer-reviewed journals: The Research of National Institute of Justice, The Journal of Health Administration Education, The Journal of African Policy Studies, The Social Science and Medicine and International Journal, The West Virginia Criminal Justice Journal, and Strategies for Promoting Pluralism in Education and the Workplace. He also has several publications in progress that he co-authored such as “Efficacy of Telemedicine in Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. He is also a published author (2012). His book titled, “The Multi-Dimensional Development Evaluation Model: A Conceptual Schema for Evaluating Developmental Programs Proposed for Developing Countries” deals with the development of instruments on the Formative, Process, and Summative evaluation. He has also written a chapter in a peer-reviewed book titled “Health Informatics for the Curious: Why Study Health Informatics?”(2017). Dr. Berhie is currently engaged in research efforts for the development of the West Virginia Health Innovation Center: The Center of Excellence in Health Informatics, Elevated Blood Pressure and Elevated Blood Glucose Level Risk Factors among West Virginia, Appalachian high school students: Problems Associated with a Growing Prevalence of Obesity, the development of apps in mobile e-Health intervention in obesity in rural areas, and the role of development and implementation of mobile apps and telemedicine in transforming health care in developing countries: a perspective. He also aspires to assist like-minded people in attracting Federal, State, and private funds and as Associate Dean making research a potent arm for the Health Informatics Department both in the United States and globally.