Zimmer (submitted)

Area entrepreneur and Shepherd University professor Chip Zimmer has been selected to lead Shepherd’s Master of Business Administration program.

Zimmer, the owner at Zimmer Marketing Group and Senior Compass Resource Guide in Hagerstown, Md., joined the Shepherd faculty in 2010 and teaches business and marketing classes.

Prior to forming ZMG in 1998, Zimmer served as the vice president of RehabSolutions in Cumberland, Md.; vice president of City Hospital in Martinsburg; senior vice president of DelWilber Associates in McLean, Va.; and director of athletics for George Washington University. He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from West Virginia University and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Shepherd’s MBA program began in 2005 with 43 students and grown since then to 112 graduates, averaging 92 students during any given semester.

The program boasts 17 faculty members, 15 of whom have doctorate degrees and offer students a low 13:1 student to faculty ratio.

The program is in the accreditation process with the International Assembly for College Business Education and will be the first MBA program in the region to achieve this accreditation.

Students may earn a general MBA degree or one with an emphasis in health care administration or accounting. These emphasis programs enable students to further specialize in their particular field of expertise.

On July 1, Russ Porter assumed the role of the program coordinator of the Health Care MBA. He has a Ph.D. in health care service organizations from the Medical College of Virginia (VCU) and an Ed.D. in higher education administration from the University of North Texas. He also has a nursing home administrator’s license. Roger Hamood, program coordinator of the Accounting MBA, has an MBA from Marshall and is a licensed CPA. Both have been on the graduate faculty at Shepherd since 2008.

For additional information about Shepherd’s MBA or other graduate programs, call 304-876-5313 or go online to www.shepherd.edu/graduate-studies.