Nelson has more than 30 years of academic and clinical leadership experience with a proven record of fostering innovation, research, and clinical excellence. During his eight-year tenure at Rutgers, the department has evolved to include five fellowship training programs, a top-rated clinical clerkship, and pioneering clinical programs. Nelson successfully increased clinical volume by 11%, doubled the size of the faculty, expanded the residency program by 40%, secured $3 million in federal research grants, and markedly boosted the department’s clinical revenue. In this prior role, Nelson provided direct clinical care to patients in the emergency department at University Hospital, New Jersey’s only public hospital and served as a senior medical consultant to the New Jersey Poison Information & Education System, the state’s poison center.
As dean of the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine, Nelson will spearhead the college’s innovative medical student and graduate medical education programs, engagement with its clinical training partners, faculty-practice plan, FAU Medicine, and cutting-edge research programs.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Dr. Lewis Nelson to the Florida Atlantic family – especially at such a pivotal time of growth for the Schmidt College of Medicine,” said FAU President Stacy Volnick. “Dr. Nelson’s impressive background, leadership skills, compassion and contributions to medicine, education, research, and advocacy will greatly benefit our students, faculty, staff, and community. Thank you to Dr. Valery Forbes, chair of the search committee and dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science; and to all the search committee members for their hard work in selecting our new dean.”
Nelson is board certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine. His research and scholarship focus on the medical and social consequences of substance use, including opioid overdose and withdrawal, alcohol withdrawal, and alternative pain relief strategies. His numerous activities have had a significant impact on health policy, clinical care, and education across the entire spectrum of learners.
Before joining Rutgers, Nelson spent more than 20 years at New York University School of Medicine, where he was a professor of emergency medicine, vice chair for academic affairs, and director of the medical toxicology fellowship program. He received his M.D. degree from the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn, and an MBA from Brandeis University with a focus on health policy. He completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he also served as chief resident. He also completed a fellowship in medical toxicology at New York University School of Medicine.
Throughout his career, Nelson has actively engaged with several organizations closely tied to academic medicine. He served as a director of the American Board of Emergency Medicine for nine years and represented them on the American Board of Medical Specialties Health Policy and Strategy Committee and the National Academy of Medicine Health Policy Fellowship Program. He also served as president of the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) and as a board member of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. He currently holds the position of past president of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine.
Nelson also has collaborated with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine (addiction medicine).
Among his numerous awards and accolades, Nelson received the career award for Contribution to Research from the American College of Emergency Physicians in 2023, and previously received the Ellenhorn Career Achievement award in medical toxicology from ACMT. His collaboration with and support for the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies have garnered him a faculty appointment in pharmacology, physiology, and neuroscience.
Nelson currently serves on the board of directors of two medically related charitable foundations: the American Board of Emergency Medicine Foundation and the Medical Toxicology Foundation. He also serves as a consultant to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Nelson is the senior editor of Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies, the standard textbook for managing human poisoning and has more than 300 publications to his credit in peer-reviewed medical journals. In addition, he serves on several medical journal editorial boards. He has received grant funding through the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, among others.
“I am thrilled to become a part of Florida Atlantic and the Schmidt College of Medicine and to join forces with our exceptional students, faculty, staff, generous donors, and our community and hospital partners to help shape the future of health care in South Florida and beyond,” said Nelson. “I am eager to build upon the medical school’s rich legacy of achievements. Together, we will foster a collaborative environment that prioritizes compassion and patient-centered care while advancing innovative translational research aimed at enhancing quality of life for all.”
Established in 2011, the Schmidt College of Medicine addresses the health care needs of Florida and is recognized as a community-based medical school. It has a robust academic structure with 170 faculty members, 1,300 affiliate faculty, 273 medical students, 177 residents and fellows, and 100 graduate students in biomedical science, along with 20 post-baccalaureate students.
Key partnerships with five local hospitals in Palm Beach County support the college’s undergraduate medical education and form the Graduate Medical Education Consortium, which offers residency and fellowship programs. The college also has a collaboration with Broward Health, one of the 10 largest public health care systems in the U.S., to enhance academic medicine within a public safety-net health system. Additional affiliations with Memorial Healthcare System, Cleveland Clinic Florida, and the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience provide invaluable research and educational opportunities.
The Schmidt College of Medicine’s national standing has risen significantly due to its innovative undergraduate medical education and graduate medical education programs, along with a steady increase in federally supported extramural funding, making it a leader in National Institutes of Health-sponsored research at FAU. The college offers students various educational pathways, including an M.D. program, an M.D./Ph.D. program, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical sciences, and graduate certificates.
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About the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine:
FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is one of approximately 157 accredited medical schools in the U.S. The college was launched in 2010, when the Florida Board of Governors made a landmark decision authorizing FAU to award the M.D. degree. After receiving approval from the Florida legislature and the governor, it became the 134th allopathic medical school in North America. With more than 170 full and part-time faculty and more than 1,300 affiliate faculty, the college matriculates 64 medical students each year and has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum. To further FAU’s commitment to increase much needed medical residency positions in Palm Beach County and to ensure that the region will continue to have an adequate and well-trained physician workforce, the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was formed in fall 2011 with five leading hospitals in Palm Beach County. The Consortium currently has five Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited residencies including internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and neurology.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
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