Ralph Welsh, M.S., Ph.D.(c)
Lecturer
527 Edwards Hall
Department of Public Health Sciences
Box 340745
Clemson, SC 29634-0745
Phone: 864-656-7158
FAX: 864-656-6227
E-Mail: ralphw@clemson.edu
Professor Welsh is one of the Department of Public Health Sciences’ Full-Time Lecturers. His academic preparation includes undergraduate education in Health Sciences-Exercise Physiology from a School of Allied Health, followed by graduate level education in Exercise Science and Health Promotion, Education and Behavior from a School of Public Health. This broadly focused educational background provides Prof. Welsh with a multidisciplinary perspective that enhances the education he provides to undergraduates seeking academic preparation in the area of Public Health Sciences.
Prior to joining the faculty in 2002, Prof. Welsh taught at various institutions including Anderson College in South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His primary teaching responsibilities while at Clemson University have been Introduction to Public Health (HLTH 202) and Health and Human Disease (HLTH 298). He also teaches courses on changing individual health behaviors (HLTH 240), changing population level health (HLTH 498), and a physical activity and fitness course (HLTH 250) that emphasizes the holistic health benefits of living a physically active lifestyle while also promoting skill development in the areas of fitness assessment, physical activity behavior assessment, and physical activity related behavior change strategies. Prof. Welsh’s teaching experience also includes a variety of knowledge and skills based courses in the areas of personal wellness, anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology, and the assessment of physiological responses to exercise. In addition to Prof. Welsh’s twelve plus years of teaching in higher education, he brings numerous real world experiences into the classroom. As an exercise physiologist, health educator, and health promotion specialist, he has worked with a wide variety of populations including members of the US Speed Skating team, college and high school athletes, recreational athletes, minority youth participating in hospital based pediatric obesity program, individuals with mental health disabilities enrolled in an outpatient psychosocial clubhouse, and minority populations living in a subsidized housing community. In addition, Prof. Welsh has served as a college and high school track and cross country coach while also co-leading several summer track tours throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1980’s promoting faith based community development. Finally, a little known fact about Prof. Welsh is he served nine years in the US military as a Diesel Locomotive Mechanic (e.g. a train mechanic) – skills Prof. Welsh would jokingly insist are valuable to his current profession as an instructor of Public Health Science Students. Prof. Welsh’s teaching philosophy emphasizes providing students with a sustainable understanding of the fundamental knowledge, applied skills, and holistic perspectives required of public health science professionals. Through this approach it is believed that students will be effectively prepared to positively impact the health of the nation in a variety of public health science disciplines. While teaching is Prof. Welsh’s primary responsibility at Clemson University, he has also been involved in numerous research studies funded by agencies that include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the US Olympic Committee (USOC). A sample of research topics he has been involved with includes establishing physical fitness hiring standards for Chicago firefighters, investigating the effectiveness of “cross training” on sport specific athletic performance, creating field tests that assess optimal training intensities for athletes, exploring the influence of diet and exercise on athletic induced amenorrhea, mechanisms of central and peripheral fatigue, youth fitness assessment, development of cognitive behavioral physical activity promotion interventions, development of an effective hospital based pediatric obesity program, and exploration of determinants of PA behavior among students experiencing life transitions. For his Master’s Thesis, Prof. Welsh published Gatorade funded research investigating the role of carbohydrate supplementation on optimal physical and mental sports performance. His Dissertation research focuses on understanding and promoting physically active lifestyles among youth and youth adults making life transitions from high school into college and beyond. These ecological based studies have explored the role that individual factors; social factors; physical and policy environment factors; and previous participation in organized physical activity programs play on long term health related physical activity behavior.
- Ph.D. Candidate, Health Promotion Education and Behavior, University of South Carolina
- M.S., Exercise Science, University of South Carolina
- B.S., Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Physical Activity Assessment and Promotion
- Pediatric Obestiy Treatment and Prevention
- Internet Based Health Behavior Assessment
- Eliminating Health Disparities
- Sports Performance
- Central Nervous System Fatigue
- Introduction to Public Health
- Human Health and Disease
- Determinants of Health Behavior
- Health and Fitness
- Improving Population Health
- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
- International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- International Journal of Sports Medicine
- Wisconsin Medical Journal
- European Journal of Applied Physiology
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