Dr. Robert Sabalis is the newest member of the Lander University Board of Trustees.
The South Carolina General Assembly elected Sabalis to fill the seat vacated by Dr. Ann Hurst, who died last year of cancer.
Sabalis, who holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Syracuse University, is a longtime educator and medical school administrator. He currently serves as assistant secretary for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), a joint committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association, that accredits medical schools in the United States and Canada.
Before joining the AAMC in 2000 as executive secretary for the Group on Student Affairs, he served as associate dean for medical education and academic affairs at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, where he was also a professor of family and preventive medicine.
Prior to joining the faculty at USC in 1978 as director of the School of Medicine's first-year Understanding Human Behavior and second-year Psychopathology courses, he was a staff teacher psychologist at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, the teaching and research hospital of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.
He and his wife, Ray, the former director of development at the Virginia Theological Seminary, in Alexandria, Va., have three adult children and six grandchildren.
Sabalis, who describes himself as "a firm believer in a liberal arts education as a foundation for developing future citizens, workers, and leaders," said that Lander's reputation as a strong liberal arts institution was one reason for his interest in a seat on the board.
"Second, throughout my 40-year educational and administrative career in medical education, I have worked to identify and support promising students from rural environments and educationally and financially disadvantaged backgrounds, and first-generation college students as applicants to medical school and as enrolled medical students," he said.
He continued, "Personal experience has shown that South Carolina has thousands of highly capable, conscientious and motivated students who can flourish in college and take their places in the world when provided with appropriate educational opportunities, individual and academic support, a welcoming environment, small classes and personal relationships with interested faculty members. Lander University is an educational institution that provides such resources to its students and is committed to its students' educational success."