UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour has announced the hiring of Josh Nelson as assistant athletic director for applied health and performance science. Nelson brings more than 10 years of experience in the fields of applied performance and strength and conditioning, most recently serving as the director of applied performance and operations at Baylor.
"We are excited to have Josh join our staff and lead our applied health and performance science program," said Barbour. "He has a great breadth of experience in applied performance, performance enhancement and as an instructor, which will benefit our students. Josh did great work developing the applied performance program at Baylor. We expect he will continue to build our program."
"My family and I are very blessed and excited to be joining the Penn State community," Nelson said. "We would like to thank Sandy Barbour, Charmelle Green and the incredible staff for this opportunity. We are very drawn to the high-level athletic and academic programs at the University and the tremendous family environment that surrounds Happy Valley.
"As a multidisciplinary performance field, we will use data to inform decision making to optimize the health, well-being, and performance of our student-athletes. I view student-athlete development as a long-term process that includes maturation both during sport as well as in the lifestyle decisions that are made away from sport. I am excited to get to work with the tremendous student-athletes at Penn State."
Nelson will be charged with leading and developing novel and innovative training and monitoring methodologies, and education that will serve to make the Penn State Applied Health and Performance Science Program world class in its approach to student-athlete wellness, injury prevention, recovery, physical preparation and performance.
Nelson comes to Happy Valley after spending the last six years at Baylor serving in a similar capacity. He served as the director of applied performance and operations with the Bears for the last two years where he used technology to help prepare, plan and problem solve to enhance student-athlete performance. Nelson managed all day-to-day operations pertaining to student-athlete wellness monitoring, technology systems and data analysis, and performance education for coaches, student-athletes and sport performance staffs across all sports.
Nelson was instrumental in increasing the use of systems-based decision making for staff and student-athletes across the Baylor athletics department. Among the technologies Nelson used with the Bears are Catapult GPS, Tensiomyography (TMG), Globus EMS, Trackman/Rapsodo and Omegawave.
Nelson previously held roles as associate and assistant director of applied performance and operations, as well as athletic performance coach working with football training, baseball, softball, volleyball, men's and women's tennis, track and field and equestrian at Baylor. In addition to his role with applied performance operations, Nelson also served as the head baseball athletic performance coach and an adjunct instructor within the health, human performance and recreation department at Baylor.
Nelson completed his doctorate degree in coaching and teaching studies from West Virginia University in 2017. From 2009-12, he was a graduate teaching assistant and instructor in the College of Physical Activity and Sport Science at WVU. Additionally, during his time at WVU, Nelson was a contracted strength and conditioning coach at several high schools in the Morgantown area, was appointed a representative on the National Strength and Conditioning Association - Virginia board of representatives, and was the faculty representative for the Athletic Coaching Education club at WVU.
Nelson is a 2009 Emory & Henry College graduate where he earned his undergraduate degree in health and physical education and master's degree in education. Nelson was a four-year letter winner on the baseball team as an infielder and a student assistant coach for the football staff where he worked with wide receivers, film breakdown and recruiting.
Nelson has certifications in CSCCa (SCCC), NSCA (CSCS) and USA Weightlifting (L1).
