The United States Sports Academy is expanding its global outreach and program offerings to meet the professional development needs of a wide array of sport organizations around the world with the creation of its new Center for Professional Studies and Continuing Education.
Over the last few years, the Academy has recognized a need on the part of sport organizations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe for professional development and educational opportunities for employees. To meet this need, the Academy has vastly expanded its post-secondary, non-degree sport education offerings, ranging from its traditional sports coaching and management programs to more specialized programs in adaptive sport, strength and conditioning, and security management to name but a few.
“This move is a reflection of the work that the Academy has been doing with many Central Sport Organizations (CSOs) around the world in helping them to develop their staff and to professionalize their operations,” Academy President and CEO Dr. T.J. Rosandich said. “The sport education programs that the Academy has been providing these CSOs are characterized as post-secondary, non-degree educational credentials such as certificates, certifications, or diploma programs. All of them are designed to impart core skills to coaches, administrators, and other sport professionals require to be effective in their jobs.”
Dr. Carlos Tasso Eira De Aquino will serve as the executive director of the center, which is charged with the development of new, consumer-targeted courses along with expanding the institution’s current post-secondary, non-degree continuing education and professional studies offerings in the United States and around the world. Read more about the Center for Professional Studies and Continuing Education.
“The opening of this center is a significant step in the Academy’s strategic plan to expand its professional studies and continuing education programs,” Academy vice president of academic affairs Dr. Tomi Wahlström said. “It builds on the Academy’s established and successful foundation, adding new courses directed to the general public and not just sports professionals alone. In addition, the center will offer courses in new formats and modalities. For example, there will be international online courses facilitated by expert faculty following a cohort model.”
Aquino is an accomplished senior executive and professor, combining a Ph.D. and two post-doctoral degrees with more than 20 years of experience in leading companies and higher education organizations, and contributing to scholarship in different areas of knowledge. Along his career, Aquino has worked as chief academic officer, provost, executive director, dean of business, dean of accreditation, and chair of undergraduate and graduate programs, in institutions in the United States and abroad, with student and faculty bodies that encompassed a clear diversity of cultures.
His experience and network in the sports arena includes expertise in teaching and development. He has helped multiple institutions and organizations in the states and abroad to grow their programs, and increase their participation and recognition in global markets. Aquino has been responsible for reviewing and updating academic, and continuing education programs, developing new domestic and international partnerships, while coordinating relationships with existing and new partners in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Africa. He is well-traveled and multilingual, being a native speaker of Portuguese and fluent in English and Spanish, with basic understanding of Italian and French.
In academia, Aquino has been strategically building and leading diverse teams to solve complex, systemic problems, besides managing, teaching, developing and supervising relevant research. He has extensive experience working effectively with faculty, staff, students, and administrators in a student-centered environment, committed to the integration of professional practices and academics to meet society’s present and future needs.
Since its founding nearly a half-century ago, the United States Sports Academy has leveraged its role and resources as a special mission sports university to make a global impact through quality sport instruction, research and service programs in 65 countries around the world. These contributions have varied in scope from the full-charge conduct of a nation’s entire national sport effort to individual coaching clinics, seminars, and symposia.
The Academy’s international efforts have included programs and partnerships in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and more.
Clients of the Academy have included central sports organizations (CSOs, such as ministries of youth and sports), national Olympic committees, ministries of education (for physical education and interscholastic sport programs) and sport associations and federations. Many of the details of this work can be found by visiting the Academy’s website at https://ussa.edu/international/
