Kenneth Baldwin

Biography-Professor Kenneth E. Baldwin

Professor Ken Baldwin is a full-time Associate Professor and the Program Coordinator for the Online Master's Degree in Fitness and former Coordinator for the Fitness and Wellness Leadership Undergraduate Degree at the State University of New York’s (SUNY) Department of Fitness and Wellness since 2007. Ken has been working in an academic setting since 2000, and his first opportunity to teach and coordinate his first academic program was at San Diego State University (SDSU). He created SDSU’s Personal Trainer Certificate Program, a 6-month program that prepared individuals to become successful personal trainers. Professor Baldwin is best known for developing and implementing Purdue University’s Undergraduate Degree in Personal Fitness Training, the Nation’s first four-year degree program for students planning to pursue a career in personal training in 2004. It’s not only that this was the first four degree, but he is known for creating the current modern day academic model for undergraduate fitness/exercise science degree structure that incorporates clinical rotations, practical course work, and business classes into degrees focusing on fitness, personal training, kinesiology, sports performance/strength and conditioning, and exercise science.

Ken has received national recognition from numerous media outlets for his achievements in creating this academic degree model, including Newsweek, L. A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Athletic Business, WRTV-TV 6, MSNBC.COM, Fitness Business News, the Associated Press, IDEA Fitness Journal, Fitness Professional Online, New York Newsday, Club Industry, IHRSA, and Personal Fitness Professional for establishing both Purdue's Personal Training and SUNY's Fitness degree. NOTE: You can review national articles focusing on Purdue's Personal Trainer and SUNY's Fitness Degree programs by going to Ken’s Degree Articles Tab.

Ken is also the Executive Director for The National Posture Institute (NPI), an educational and professional organization that provides certificate programs for personal trainers/group instructors and allied health/medical/fitness professionals to receive the National Posture Institute-Certified Posture Specialist and NPI’s Certified Resistance Training Professional designation.

He has served in state and national leadership roles, and is the former Chair of IDEA’s National Personal Trainer Committee and Chair of the Senior Fitness Subcommittee for the Massachusetts’s Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports. He’s served on national committees for American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Personal Trainer and Certification Development Committee, AAHPERD, and the Medical Fitness Association (MFA). He’s been awarded Boston’s Best Personal Trainer three times and is the Recipient of the IDEA’s Personal Trainer of the Year Award. Ken is the Senior Editor, content expert, and lead author for ACSM’s Resources for the Personal Trainer Textbook (2nd Edition).

Ken has been involved in the fitness, wellness, and education profession for over 20 years. With an extensive background in the fitness industry which includes operating and managing a personal training company, to training many types of populations from children to seniors and beginning exercisers to athletes, to lecturing and consulting at college/university departments, corporations, public events, national conventions (ACSM Health and Fitness Summit, Club Industry, IDEA World Conference, AAHPERD, International Council of Active Aging, Canadian Fitness Professional Conference, NCOA, World Class Conference in Moscow, Russia, International Federation on Aging, and the Medical Fitness Association, to name a few) and international conferences. In addition to his industry experience, he is actively involved in working with national organizations and colleges/universities in developing educational standards for those wishing to enter the Personal Fitness Training and Health/Fitness Profession.