Welsh Announces Robert Fleischman as Dean of ESU’s College of Business Management

Posted by: admin on April 30, 2014, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., announced the appointment of Robert P. Fleischman, Ed.D., J.D., as dean of the college of business management effective April 21, 2014. Fleischman has been serving in this capacity on an interim basis since July 1, 2013, and has been a member of ESU’s campus community for more than 20 years. As a sport management professor, Fleischman taught coursework, graduate and undergraduate, in sport law, sport marketing, sport business and finance, organization and administration of sport organizations and contemporary sport. In 2013, Fleischman was named “Faculty Member of the Year,” by East Stroudsburg University’s Student Senate.

Prior to his appointment as interim dean, Fleischman served a term as interim department chair for the sport management department, which is one of the most popular majors at ESU. Prior to the formation of the sport management department, he served as the sport management program’s coordinator for 10 years. Fleischman also helped to coordinate the university’s annual Executive in Residence college collaboration with business leaders in the regional community, and was instrumental in drafting curriculum for the graduate sport management program approval as an accredited online program by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Fleischman earned his doctorate in educational theory and practice from Binghamton University in 2006, his master’s degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst in 1995, his juris doctorate from Hofstra University School of Law in 1985 and his bachelor of arts degree in political science with concentrations in organizational psychology and organizational communication from the University of Michigan in 1980.  He is also a member of the Monroe County Bar Association and the New York State and Pennsylvania Bar Associations.  Previous professional experience includes work as a consultant on sports business and education matters with Time Warner, Inc.; collaborative research projects with the NCAA; guest legal commentator for courtroom television/Time Warner Cable; director of operations with the American Lacrosse League; and, partner in the law firm Kirschenbaum, Fleischman and Spiegler. Fleischman is also a member of the Committee on Sport and Entertainment Law New York State Bar Association, the Committee on Education Law Pennsylvania Bar Association, North American Society of Sport Management, Society for the Study of Legal Aspects of Sport and Physical Activity, and Sports Lawyers Association.

While at ESU, Fleischman has authored a number of grants aimed at research in areas such as wellness, program development and student perceptions of university facilities.  He has participated in a number of panel discussions and other scholarly presentations nationwide and presented at a number of national conferences about risk management, sport management, sport law and sport marketing.  Fleischman has also partnered with many of his colleagues to write abstracts and papers relative to Title IX, gender equality and various aspects of the sports industry.  At ESU, he is an active member of the university’s strategic planning process and the executive leadership speaker series as well as campus-wide committees and task forces.

As interim dean, Fleischman was responsible for: spearheading articulation agreements with community colleges within a 100-mile radius of ESU; forming strategic partnerships with local, regional and national corporate partners through ESU’s division of research and economic development; taking steps to develop the College of Business and Management Advisory Board; and serving as a member of the university’s council of academic deans and the provost’s leadership team. He will continue to pursue these and other duties in his new post.

Fleischman lives in Delaware Water Gap, Pa., where he remains active in the community.