Dr. Mark Baldis’ deep connections to Fresno State started in 1971 when he was only a precocious 13-year-old. Lengthy earlier than most of the infrastructure modifications on the College, Baldis was already constructing roots on campus because the son of a devoted professor.
“After college, I’d get on my bicycle and trip out to Fresno State and hang around at the back of my mother’s classroom and do my homework,” Baldis reminisced. “In reality, I’ve taught in the identical classroom within the Lab College, proper subsequent to my mother’s former workplace.”
Baldis would later earn each his bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in kinesiology (train science and bodily schooling) on the College, along with a doctorate in well being promotion and wellness from Rocky Mountain College of Well being Professions.
At present, Baldis is a longtime lecturer within the Division of Kinesiology, a task he started in 2000. Along with the Division of Kinesiology, Baldis has additionally lent his experience to the Departments of Bodily Remedy, Biology, Public Well being and Meals Sciences and Diet.
Baldis’ devoted service to the Fresno State campus not too long ago earned him the Spring 2022 Provost’s Award for Excellent Lecturer, as introduced by Dr. Xuanning Fu, Fresno State’s provost and vp for Educational Affairs. It’s an award that runs within the Baldis household. His mom, Bette Baldis, acquired an identical award whereas she was instructing at Fresno State when Baldis was in highschool.
“I can bear in mind how honored she was and the way proud I used to be of her,” Baldis stated. “I by no means thought that I’d comply with in her footsteps as a school member at Fresno State, not to mention be nominated for a similar kind of award. I can’t think about how proud she can be of me right now.”
His mom, Bette, was among the many pioneers of the deaf schooling program at Fresno State. Her instructing legacy was profound and left Baldis impressed to additionally train on the identical College.
His instructing profession started in his forties by probability. On the time, he was a bodily remedy assistant at a neighborhood clinic when he acquired a name from Dr. Catherine Jackson, a longtime kinesiology professor (now retired). She was searching for somebody to show part-time in “Kinesiology 118: Fundamentals of Train Physiology” and thought Baldis was the proper individual for the job as a result of his in depth train science and instructing background, mixed with experience in private coaching.
That one-part time course became three programs within the spring semester and later developed right into a full course load with Baldis instructing full-time. He went on to show in numerous areas, together with bodily remedy, bodily schooling, athletic coaching and train science on the undergraduate and graduate degree. For the previous 12 years, he has led the extremely common train science program as its director and in addition leads the Human Efficiency Lab on campus.
“I spotted that I might truly have an effect on much more individuals by being a instructor,” Baldis stated. “I can train 50 college students and people 50 will exit and work with probably a whole lot of others. By instructing, I can attain hundreds of individuals in that means. Being in entrance of the classroom lecturing and asking questions is simply 10% of what I do, however instructing — it’s my favourite a part of the job. So, yeah, in order that was the factor that basically type of attracted me to the career, along with my dad and mom as soon as being academics, as properly.”
Offering internship alternatives for his college students is one thing Baldis is especially enthusiastic about. In complete, he has straight supervised over 100 internships. Most notably, he spearheaded a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation internship in partnership with Saint Agnes Medical Middle, which has led lots of his former college students to work inside cardiac rehab applications all around the state.
From instructing to mentoring to coordinating internships, Baldis’ influence has been immense, in line with lots of his former college students.
“An impressive lecturer can encourage their college students to teach themselves and pursue their desires, whereas connecting with their college students personally. Dr. Baldis represents all of those values,” stated Vassillios Dimitriopoulos, a 2022 alumnus of the train science program. “Not solely does Dr. Baldis educate his college students together with his thoughtfully deliberate curriculum on daily basis, however he additionally conjures up his college students throughout these lectures.”
The Division of Kinesiology’s train science program averages 650 college students a 12 months, making it one of many largest choices on campus. To cater to the calls for of the favored program, it’s going to quickly transition from an choice space to a level program within the fall of 2023. Baldis has led the cost on the expansive mission, working intently with the Workplace of the Chancellor and College officers to coordinate new and current curriculum modifications and onboard new school.
Very like his mom and Jackson did, Baldis is intent on paving the best way for the subsequent era of college at Fresno State.
“I’m taking a look at the way forward for the train science program,” Baldis stated. “I need to mentor and create new school who will ultimately take over.”
His dedication to this system, even lengthy after he retires some day, is what makes him stand out, stated Dr. Michael Coles, professor of train science and Baldis’ longtime colleague.
“Yr after 12 months, Dr. Baldis continues to set the usual for what an impressive lecturer is and what all school ought to attempt to be,” stated Coles. “His dedication to scholar success is apparent and properly documented, having developed scholar internships which have straight led to employment alternatives for undergraduate and graduate college students. He has demonstrated sustained and distinctive instructing effectiveness, and has made unbelievable contributions to the division’s curriculum.”
In 2015, Baldis was influential within the train science program’s recognition as an internationally acknowledged schooling program for the skilled preparation of energy and conditioning professionals. The popularity, by the Nationwide Power and Conditioning Affiliation, has been in impact ever since.
Baldis has additionally acquired different vital accolades, together with the School of Well being and Human Companies’ School Mentor Award in 2012 and the College’s Campus Advisor’s Community Excellent Adviser Award in 2008, for which he was nominated seven completely different instances. He has additionally been educated to function an adviser for the College’s Challenge Protected Suicide Prevention Program.
Other than academia, Baldis is lively in skilled organizations together with serving on the Nationwide Certification and Registry Boards Credential Committee for the American School of Sports activities Drugs, in addition to being a part of the medical group for the Central Valley Fuego Futbol Membership.
Baldis is amongst two school from Fresno State to obtain the 2022 Provost’s Award for Excellent Lecturer. The awards had been established in 1993 to acknowledge the excellent instructing, analysis and repair that’s central to the mission of Fresno State.
Honorees present college students with a stimulating atmosphere that fosters studying and affirms the College as an mental and cultural chief within the Central Valley.
Study extra in regards to the Provost’s Awards and find out about this 12 months’s honorees at FresnoStateNews.com.
