Stephen F. Gambescia

Stephen F. Gambescia, PhD, MBA, MEd, MLS, MHum, MCHES is Professor of Health Services Administration with continuing responsibilities in the College of Nursing and Health Professions as Director of the Doctor of Health Science program, with 18 years of service in three colleges within Drexel and past academic administrative roles. His areas of research are in macro public policy in a range of areas such as public health, healthcare, health promotion/disease prevention, education, social welfare, nonprofit management, sport, and socio-cultural issues. Aside from academic publishing in these areas he writes commentaries, for which some are syndicated.

Dr. Gambescia has published several books and several book chapters with two books used in teaching his courses: The Healthcare Nonprofit: Keys to Effective Management and A Study Guide for Public Policymaking in the US. The latter is used in healthcare policy courses which he teaches at all three levels (UG, Grad, and Doctoral). This book serves as a primer for any public policy course such as health, education, business, economics, and social welfare. His co-edited book in the healthcare nonprofit is one of few practitioner-oriented books that serve as a primer for anyone working in nonprofits today. Two significant chapters in the book Ethics in Health Education and Promotion walk the reader through the epistemic challenge of the first step in public policymaking as Problem Definition: Ethics and the contemporary health promotion and health education specialist and Communicating with confidence and integrity in J. Vogelzang, Ed.; Elsevier Publishing Group. He has challenged researchers in the areas of sport and society in publishing “A research agenda for combined male and female sport competition” in Delta Epsilon Sigma Journal, LXVIII (2), pp 20-29 and wrote a provocative article to have schools consider not sponsoring youth football to “Get our children off the gridiron” parts one and two in Delta Epsilon Sigma Journal, LXII (2), 81-85; LXII (1), 33-36.

Dr. Gambescia has been one of few public advocates to keep recreational use of cannabis from becoming legal in PA. He has three primary research studies in this area: “How State Laws Explicate Quality Patient Care in the Use of Medical Marijuana in Their Initial Legislative Acts.” “Content Analysis of Risk/Benefit Communication in a Metropolitan Daily Newspaper’s Sunday HEALTH Section, for Use of Marijuana: A Multi-year Review” and “A Briefing on the Marketing of Recreational Marijuana in the US State: Regulations, Risks, and Responsible Compliance and Considerations for Enforcement.” Working with several teams he has published scoping reviews in school-based nutrition education and behavioral interventions for Spain, Italy, and the Republic of Iran and special populations: Deaf/Hard of Hearing and the Visually Impaired. Similarly, in working with teams of investigators, he has prepared and has out for review several manuscripts looking at research conducted when health professional programs (nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and dentistry) had to pivot to e-learning during the COVID-19 virus pandemic shut down. He and a first-year medical student looked at the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among university students in the Arab States.