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Trumbull and Tuscarawas counties. Kent State offers more than 280 academic programs at the certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, educational special- ist and doctoral levels. Since its founding as a teacher-training school in 1910, Kent State has become an engine for economic, cultural and workforce development in the region and beyond. The university has also earned acclaim for applying new knowledge to address the needs of the communities it serves and society as a whole through a vast array of continuing education courses and much more. "We're a 42,000-student university on eight different campuses. Because we have a wide span of operation, because we're in multiple counties, because we deal with multiple health systems already, I think the opportunities for OCPM students — especially in regard to expanding residency opportunities — are really quite enormous," says Dr. Lefton. "This is a marriage made in heaven. This is a lock and key." KSUCPM The new KSUCPM will offer podiatric students the development of dual-degree programs, such as Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Public Health, and PhD programs in various sciences. Students can take advantage of programs in the College of Education, Health and Human Services, as well. "The problems that exist in America with obesity and type 2 diabetes are such that they have implications for foot and leg disorders. These are public health issues. These are also podiatric medicine issues. So there's great synergy and natural intellectual alignment," says Dr. Lefton. Podiatric students will be able to work with KSU men's and women's varsity and intramural sports teams, trainers and team physicians to gain expe- rience in sports medicine. According to Dr. Melillo, this may lead to a new area of specialization in the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine program. In addition, students and faculty will have the opportunity to engage in research programs related to sports medicine, public health and biomedical sciences. "The curriculum for podiatric medicine will remain the same. Yet this partnership will offer more advantageous resources and opportunities for the podiatric medical student," says Dr. Melillo. There are advantages in marketing and fundraising, as well, given the size and scope of these departments at KSU. And with an alumni base of over 200,000, the opportunity for expanding recruitment efforts are, in Dr. Lefton's words, "really 8 | Cleveland-Akron-Canton MD NEWS ■ MDNEWS.COM ■ JULY-AUGUST 2012 quite enormous ... and should increase the applicant pool and further improve the quality of students." "Once the merger is officially completed, OCPM will be the only podiatric college associated with a state university. And this will give our students a great advantage in higher education," says Dr. Melillo. "Obviously, we're extremely excited about this." For more information visit www.kent. edu/ocpm. ■ PHOTO COURTESY OF OHIO COLLEGE OF PODIATRIC MEDICINE