Kapasi Appointed Dean of MUSC College of Health Professions

Contact: Heather Woolwine
843-792-7669
woolwinh@musc.edu

Feb. 26, 2018

CHARLESTON, SC – Zoher F. Kapasi, PT, Ph.D., MBA, will be the new dean of the Medical University of South Carolina’s College of Health Professions (CHP) effective May 1.

The announcement was made by MUSC Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Lisa Saladin, PT, Ph.D.

“Dr. Kapasi was selected after an extensive national search and we look forward to welcoming him to this pivotal leadership role,” Saladin said. “His leadership experience encompasses all areas of our tripartite mission of education, research, and service, and he is a strong advocate for faculty and student engagement in their respective professional associations. He is the ideal person to help lead the College of Health Professions and MUSC forward in our pursuit of excellence.”

“It is an honor and a wonderful opportunity to serve as the next dean of the College of Health Professions at MUSC,” Kapasi said. “I appreciate the trust and faith MUSC has shown in me and I am excited to work with a stellar group of faculty, staff, students, alums, and friends of CHP.”

Kapasi has 24 years of experience as an academic faculty member and seven years of experience as an academic leader as Emory University School of Medicine’s director of the Division of Physical Therapy, and vice chairman of education and chief of outpatient development in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. His administrative skills include academic program development, accreditation and fiscal management, fundraising and alumni engagement, and faculty mentoring, assessment, and development. Some of his many administrative accomplishments include the successful initiation of two dual degree programs that combine a clinical degree with either an MBA or a Master of Public Health degree, the successful development of two residency programs, increasing direct research grant revenues by more than 200 percent over a five-year period, establishing a collaborative relationship with the Georgia Institute of Technology to broaden research opportunities, and increasing clinical revenues in the faculty practice.

He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical therapy from Seth G.S. Medical College, University of Bombay in India. He received his Ph.D. in anatomy-immunology from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later earned an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

He did post-doctoral work in immunology at Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland and the Medical College of Virginia. After graduation, his research focused on age-related changes in immune function and the effects of exercise and nutrition on the immune system.

Throughout his academic career, Kapasi has earned several teaching awards. In 2014, Emory University School of Medicine conferred upon him the Dean’s Teaching Award. In 2017, Emory University presented Kapasi with the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle named him the Health Care Heroes Allied Health Professional.

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South, as well as the state’s only integrated, academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and more than 850 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state’s leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. Find out more about our academic programs.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 14 hospitals with approximately 2,500 beds and five additional hospital locations in development, more than 350 telehealth sites and connectivity to patients’ homes, and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. Learn more about clinical patient services.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $4.4 billion. The nearly 25,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.