Skip to main content

Paying tribute to dedicated service and leadership

After 25 years of steadfast service to the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and West Virginia University, Barbara Dalton, director of the International Center for Performance Excellence and Fitness Information Technology Publishing, is retiring.

Dalton has worked with ICPE FiT for more than13 years. She began her career with CPASS as an accounting assistant then moved into an operation coordinator role and ultimately shifted into the interim manager of operations position. She was asked to oversee some of the director duties until she began serving as interim director of ICPE/FiT. She was appointed as director in 2015. In 2019, Dalton received the WVU Values Coin, honoring her effort to help bring the University’s mission to life through her daily work. She received her Regents Bachelor of Arts degree from Eberly College of Arts and Sciences in 2012.

“Barb Dalton deserves a great deal of thanks for her dedicated service to Fitness Information Technology Publishing and the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. During her 13 years working with FiT, her performance was so strong that she kept moving up the ladder until she was named the director in December 2015,” Jack Watson, CPASS dean said.

“As director, Barb has been instrumental in working with authors and organizations to negotiate many new and updated book titles in sport science related fields. She has developed a great reputation and has helped to keep FiT Publishing as one of the premier publishing companies serving the sport sciences. We owe her a great deal of appreciation for all that she has accomplished, and we will miss her presence in and around the halls of CPASS. We wish her all the best in her retirement,” Watson said.

Tracy Wheeler, CPASS business planning officer senior, highlights Dalton’s enduring impact on the college. “I truly admire all the improvements that Barb initiated during her tenure as director. FiT benefited from Barb’s business experiences and expertise from day one, even before she became director, and those benefits only grew over time. She is a true asset, a true friend, and will be dearly missed,” Wheeler said.

Newly appointed ICPE/FiT Publishing Director Eileen Harvey offers an inside look at Dalton’s management role. “Barb Dalton has been a great leader, mentor and friend, and has been a positive influence and an inspirational leader to me since I started at FiT Publishing in 2015,” Harvey said.

“She has forged and maintained strong relationships with everyone we work with, from authors, editors and vendors around the world, to professors, staff and students right here within the college. She will be missed by all. Barb has worn many hats over the years working for WVU and no matter what hat she puts on in retirement, I know she’ll wear it well. I wish her all the best,” Harvey added.

Message from Barb Dalton

After 25 years at WVU, including 13 years at the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, I feel blessed to have been employed at such a great institution. I have enjoyed being a part of this organization and the growth that it allowed for me as an individual.

I would like to thank Kim Suder who gave me my first job at WVU and on my first day told me, “If you work hard and try to learn everything you can, WVU is a place where a person can grow.” That has been so true of WVU for me. After beginning as a file clerk (temp) and moving through the ranks to director of the WVU International Center of Performance Excellence and WVU FiT Publishing, I am thankful to have been a part of the university. WVU also made it possible for me to become a student so that I was able to graduate with my degree in 2012.

I contribute my success as director to my great staff who were essential to my work at FiT Publishing. Thank you, Kassi Roberts, Wendy Lazzell, Eileen Harvey and all the wonderful students who have worked for me for all your hard work and dedication.

Thank you, Dr. Andy Ostrow, for seeing potential in me 13 years ago and adding me to your team at FiT Publishing and Dean Dana Brooks for hiring me as the director of FiT Publishing. Most importantly, I want to thank Tracy Wheeler for her support and guidance throughout my time at CPASS. I could not have done this without her. Dean Watson and everyone at CPASS, you have been the best faculty and staff that I have had the privilege to work with at WVU and I appreciate your support. I wish you all continued success.

I cannot say enough about my sister Brenda Ridenour who works at WVU Shared Services for her help and guidance. Brenda is a person who shows the WVU Values each day and WVU is better for the work she does to show the best of our institution. Finally, I want to send a big thank you to my husband Gary Dalton and my family for all the prayers and support during my tenure that kept me going every day.

Let’s Go, Mountaineers! Always and forever a Mountaineer.

She and her husband, Gary, continue to run CFT, Inc., which they have owned for 25 years, and plan to travel.

View the CPASS video tribute to Dalton, here.

    Share this story 
  • LinkedIn logo