Dr. Guy Nehrenz is a retired educational administrator, full professor of health sciences and former Interim Dean of the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences. He was also the Senior Associate Dean for the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale Florida. He was the founding and immediate past Editor-in-Chief for the Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice.
With over 45 years in healthcare and education, Dr. Nehrenz has held a variety of clinician and leadership positions. In his early career, he was an ICU respiratory therapist who was crossed trained as critical care specialist (an interdisciplinary program attended by nurses and therapists) at a major Phoenix, Arizona medical center. As a specialist, he handled pulmonary emergencies in the intensive care unit and also trained medical residents. He later attended a training program in the anesthesia department to acquire special procedures skills. Dr. Nehrenz then moved to develop and oversee a special procedures lab at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Phoenix. At this time, he began working part time as a flight therapist for the United States largest air medical transport program.
After moving to Samaritan AirEvac, he received specialized training in flight medicine and was a trauma flight therapist. In 1984 he developed the department of flight respiratory therapy. He was later promoted to operations manager for the flight program to include 14 aircraft, 250 crew, and 6 bases of operation. During this time, he also attended the first training program for neonatal ECMO (perfusion) specialists in the state of Arizona.
Following his 10 years at AirEvac, he moved to the position of administrative director of medical education and research for Samaritan Health, the largest health care provider in the state of Arizona, where he was administratively responsible for 16 medical residency programs, the Phoenix Fire Health Fitness Center medical personnel, the regional poison control center, and the department of medical toxicology. He was also the Director of Research for the Samaritan Health Research Institute.
Later, Dr. Nehrenz became the regional educator, assistant dean and assistant professor of medical education for a Missouri based medical school and developed family medicine residency programs while overseeing 3rd and 4th year medical student education at the southwest center in Phoenix, Arizona. During this time, he began consulting in the areas of health care program development and feasibility.
During this part of his career, he held a variety of grants and sponsored projects including the study of TB in firefighters, development of a surgical residency in Alaska, development of rural medicine residencies and other related projects in family medicine residency training, and the development of 3 pediatric clinics for the underserved using tobacco tax grant money.
Dr. Nehrenz moved to Florida in June 2002 to start the Doctor of Health Science online program in the College of Allied Health. Following this, he became the founding chair for the Department of Health Science, and over a period of 12 years he worked Dr. Richard Davis and an extraordinary team to build the multiple programs throughout the college and regional campuses.
In January of 2003, Dr's. Nehrenz, Cohen and Davis developed the Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. Dr. Nehrenz took on the role of Managing Editor and Publisher and in 2013 became the Editor-in-Chief. The journal is read in over 118 countries and is under Dr. Cheryl Hill.
Dr. Nehrenz was also on the editorial and review boards for the Internet Journal of Academic Physician Assistants, The Internet Journal of Rescue and Disaster Medicine, The Internet Journal of Alternative Medicine, and Medical Education Online.
Dr. Nehrenz was promoted to Associate Dean in April of 2004 for the College of Allied Health and Nursing while maintaining the position of Chair. In 2009, Dr. Nehrenz was promoted to Executive Associate Dean. In 2012, Dr. Nehrenz was inducted in to the Alpha Eta Honor Society for Allied Health practitioners. Dr. Nehrenz is also an inducted Associate Member of the Sigma XI Scientific Research Society in the areas of health science, research, and education. During this time, Dr. Nehrenz also held a faculty position with the University of South Australia.
In February of 2016, Dr. Nehrenz moved to the College of Osteopathic Medicine as Senior Associate Dean, and was concurrently a site visitor for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges, an Evaluator for the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, and a Scientific Advisor and Reviewer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most recently and for the past 5 years in partnership with Dr. Edward Gheiler, he has administratively overseen and is the grant holder for a prosthetic urology fellowship program funded by Boston Scientific and Urology Research Network. He has also worked with Stellenbosch University as a dissertation examiner upon request.
Dr. Nehrenz received his respiratory therapist diploma from Biosystems Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, a Bachelor of Science from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, a Master of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix, and a Doctor of Education from Nova Southeastern University in 1995.
Dr. Nehrenz has been married to his wife Sandy for over 40 years, his daughter is a cardiology Physician Assistant and graduate of the NSU PA program, and his son is a Registered Nurse and Paramedic.