Stephen F. Gambescia is professor of health services administration and Director of the Doctor of Health Science program in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. He has held a range of academic administrative positions at three universities. These included Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies (Cabrini College, Radnor, PA); Assistant Dean (Goodwin College/Drexel); Assistant Dean of Academic and Student Affairs (College of Nursing and Health Professions/Drexel); Assistant Program Director, (CNHP/Drexel); Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives, Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Executive Director of Liberal Studies Division, and Executive Director of Continuing Professional Education (Neumann College, Aston, PA); and Executive Director of an eight-college consortium in Southeastern PA.
Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Gambescia held several educational leadership roles, eventually serving as a vice president in a metro and multi-state division for two of the largest national voluntary health agencies (American Cancer Society and American Heart Association). He has 40 years of experience in the field of health promotion/disease prevention and public health policy. His research interests have been in tobacco control, chronic disease risk awareness/prevention, and broadly in health communications. His research interests in higher education include continuing professional education program development, evaluation, credentialing, and online learning. He is co-author of a book on Managing a Public Speaker Bureau for Health and Human Services Organizations, Kluwer Publications, and is one of three editors for The Healthcare Nonprofit: Keys to Effective Management by Health Administration Press. He recently published a Study Guide on Health Policymaking in the US. He has written a book giving testimony to parents who raised big families and prepared a posthumous publication for his father on Reflections on a Pilgrimage to Rome on the Occasion of the Canonization of St. John Neumann. He is the founding editor of the journal Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Gambescia is active in the state and national public health professional associations. He has held the position of president, vice-president, treasurer, delegate, and chapter development chair, for the national Society for Public Health Education. He has been a member of a Board and a Commissioner for the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing (chair 2013). For his academic achievement, he gained the honor of Distinguished Fellow in public health education (2016). He has served on several community, civic, educational, and religious boards and committees ranging from a trustee for Delaware County Community College to the 10th Synod of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
He has been invited as a guest lecturer at a dozen universities in the region on a variety of topics in healthcare policy, health promotion planning, health advocacy, managing voluntary health organizations, and a range of academic administrative issues. In June 2022 he was awarded the American Hospital Association Excellence in Teaching Health Policy Award by the Association of University Programs in Healthcare Administration.
Frequently published commentaries in metropolitan daily newspapers have played an adjunct role in his broad interests in health, education, and social policies; media studies; political philosophy; and leadership. Commentaries are now syndicated via Inside Sources.
Dr. Gambescia has robust formal academic schooling with degrees in sociology, education, communication, business, public policy, humanities, and legal studies.