Northern Kentucky University’s Tom Baxter has received a national award for his work to ensure the high quality of respiratory care at other educational institutions across the country.
Baxter has been awarded the Dr. Ralph L. Kendall Outstanding Site Visitor Award from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC). Dr. Kendall, was a longtime site visitor who was highly respected in the field and who worked to mentor and train new site visitors.
Baxter is director of the Master of Science in Health Science at NKU.
Site visitors travel to colleges and universities around the nation to ensure compliance with accreditation requirements and evaluate institutions to ensure they are providing the highest quality respiratory care education.
“Being a site visitor gives me the opportunity to experience best practices in Respiratory Care education and to pay it forward to a medical profession about which I am passionate,” Baxter said.
Baxter has been a site visitor since 1990. He joined NKU’s College of Health Professions in 2012. Baxter has also written articles for respiratory care journals and was a contributing author for two editions of a textbook, with a primary focus on ventilators.
The Maysville native began his respiratory care career in 1970 as an on-job-trainee at Hayswood Hospital in Maysville.
He holds associate degrees from Maysville Community College and Greenville Technical College in South Carolina; a bachelor’s degree in administrative management from the University of Cincinnati. He also holds a master’s degree in human resource development from Clemson University; and a doctorate in administrator leadership in teaching and learning from Walden University in Minneapolis.
Baxter will travel to San Antonio, Texas in October to accept the award at the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) International Respiratory Congress Award Ceremony.
Northern Kentucky University