Samuel V. Lankford is the interim associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services, and was professor and chair (20142017), Department of Recreation Administration at CSU Fresno. Formerly he served as a professor and doctoral program coordination in Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services and the director of the Sustainable Tourism and the Environment Program at the University of Northern Iowa. He has a PhD with a focus in recreation planning and development and a master of urban and regional planning from the University of Oregon. He holds a master of arts in recreation and park planning and a BA in geography from CSU Chico. Dr. Lankford worked as the youth director for 8th U.S.

Army Korea and also worked as a consultant for morale, welfare, and recreation organizations in Asia/Pacific. Dr. Lankford has been a practicing planner in both staff and consulting roles in California, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, and Hawaii. He has completed master plans and comprehensive plans for parks and recreation, needs assessments, community impact studies, carrying capacity studies, and market research in those states and other countries. He specializes in tourism and recreation development. Dr. Lankford participates in Ask the Author, a Sagamore initiative that enables professors who adopt titles to communicate with the author and really understand what the book is about and how any ancillaries are intended to be used.