The Post University Board of Trustees has unanimously chosen O. Alton Barron, MD, to be the Board’s new chairman. Dr. Barron will assume this new role on Feb. 1 in time for the March 1 Board meeting to be held on the University’s Waterbury campus.
Dr. Barron will succeed Mark Jennings who has held the position since 2005. Jennings will remain on the Board, along with the other seven members of the current nine-person University Board.
“The past seven years have been a time of unprecedented positive change at the University,” said Tom Samph, Ph.D., President and CEO of Post University. “The students, faculty and staff of Post University, as well as the city of Waterbury and the State of Connecticut, have benefitted tremendously from the strong leadership provided by Mark Jennings over the last six years. I am confident that under the capable stewardship of Dr. Barron we will continue to build on the momentum we have enjoyed as a University.”
In addition to attending the Board’s regularly scheduled meetings, Dr. Barron has been an active member of the Finance and Operations, and Student Life and Athletics Committees since he first joined the Board in 2005. He is past Director of Research and member of the Education Committee of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, a Senior Attending Physician in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at St. Luke’s, and an Attending Hand/Shoulder Surgeon at the CV Starr Hand Surgery Center, all in New York. He has held fellowships at Roosevelt Hospital (Hand Surgery) and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital (Shoulder Surgery) in New York, and Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, where he earned his medical degree and completed his orthopedic surgery residency. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Barron is licensed to practice medicine and surgery in the state of New York and is Board Certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery. He has published extensively in the scientific literature on many orthopedic surgery topics. He also is an accomplished poet and is co-author with his wife, a psychiatrist, of a self-help book to be published by Scribner this spring.
“It has been gratifying to see Post make a very successful transition from a financially troubled University to one of Connecticut’s most innovative and vibrant institutions of higher education,” said Dr. Barron. “I look forward to working with my fellow Board members and the University’s leadership to ensure Post’s continued growth and leadership in providing higher education options for traditional campus-based students and online adult learners.”
The Post University Board of Trustees has responsibility and control over the management of the University in accordance with the University’s mission. It provides direction and oversees the University’s academic and assessment programs in conjunction with University academic governance members; appoints the Chief Executive Officer; authorizes major University expenditures and investments, and approves operating and capital budgets, tuition pricing and institutional aid levels; and approves the Institution’s approach to regulatory and legal compliance.
Members of the Post University Board of Trustees include: Andrew Hertzmark, MBA, Partner at Generation Partners; Connia Nelson, Senior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources for Verizon Corporate Offices; Margaret Honey, Ph.D., President and CEO of the New York Hall of Science;
Mark Jennings, MBA, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Generation Partners; Selim Noujaim, MBA, D.Litt. (Hon.), Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives; Bradley Palmer, MBA, Managing Partner at Palm Ventures, LLC; Takashi Yamanaka, and Tom Samph, Ph.D., President and CEO of Post University.