Sarah Sweitzer, PhD

Biography

Touro University California's Provost and CEO, Dr. Sarah Sweitzer, is a native of Vallejo, California, home of Touro University. Dr. Sweitzer began her academic career at the University of South Carolina, School of Medicine and quickly became a National Institute of Health funded biomedical researcher where she collaborated with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Albany Medical School, UC Davis Medical School, and biotechnology companies in the Bay Area.

As a biomedical scientist at the School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Sweitzer had the unique opportunity to see a compound move from bench into clinical trials. As a National Institute of Health funded biomedical researcher, her research on chronic pain spanned in vitro studies, in vivo preclinical development, and human studies (bench to bedside). This research program was highly collaborative and spanned both cross campus relationships and collaborations.

In 2012, Dr. Sweitzer joined the faculty at Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy as the Director of Research. In this role, the first three grants were brought in to support the research infrastructure (NIH BRAD), faculty development (NIH SC INBRE), and embedding of pharmacists into free medical clinics to reduce emergency room usage (Foundation). These programs required development of community and regional hospital partnerships.

Immediately prior to her move to TUC, Dr. Sweitzer was the Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Concordia University where she helped launch the 3 to PhD Initiative, a unique partnership of a private university with a public school aimed to address health and education disparities with the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty.  Her leadership was pivotal in the development of a comprehensive physical, dental, behavioral health center partnership with Kaiser Permanente and Trillium Family Services to serve Concordia University students and Portland Public School students. Among the many accomplishments celebrated during her tenure at Concordia, Sweitzer launched a new hybrid accelerated nursing track, an online healthcare administration program, and a long-term care major.