By Cristy Lytal
As the field of health care changes rapidly, students in the Executive Master of Health Administration (EMHA) program at the USC Price School of Public Policy stand at the forefront — putting their knowledge into practice and striving to improve the overall health of their communities.
Designed for full-time working professionals, the EMHA curriculum covers all aspects of the business of health care, including leadership and management, legal issues, health economics and finance, managed care, quality, information management and strategy. The program blends online course work with two five-day residencies on USC’s University Park Campus. This attracts students not only from California, but across the United States.
“They’re terrific students,” said Michael B. Nichol, professor and director of the Graduate Programs in Health at USC Price. “They’ve got a very diverse set of work responsibilities, so they’re coming from different parts of the health care system. And they’re looking for additional skills and abilities that they’re going to be able to apply in their future careers. All of these individuals are already at a relatively high management level, and they want to be able to move up.”
One of these high-level professionals is Derek Boldon, the physician relations director at the Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital.
The son of a teacher and coach/athletic director, Boldon grew up believing that education and health care are key to promoting community success and improving people’s lives.
Boldon excelled in both academics and athletics, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a minor in business, and a master of science administration while playing basketball at Central Michigan University. After graduation, he played professional basketball in Ireland, Belgium and Argentina.
“Being a former athlete, I understand a lot about health care,” he said. “I’ve been around a lot of physicians for different injuries, so I always was interested in that, probably as early as junior high school and high school.”
Boldon previously worked at several pharmaceutical companies in roles ranging from sales to operations to management.
As physician relations director at the Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital, he advocates for approximately 300 doctors, sharing their concerns and feedback with the CEO and other top executives. He also recruits physicians and encourages them to build stronger ties to the hospital.
He explained that USC Price’s EMHA program “definitely helped me connect more with the physicians and connect more with the C-suite players. I understand their challenges and issues, and I can give them solid feedback on what my thoughts are.”
He also sees the value of the EMHA in helping him achieve his goal of moving into an operations leadership position at a hospital or medical group. He eventually plans to become a chief operating officer.
“The EMHA has definitely given me a background in allowing me to use some of my past experiences and skills and being able to transition into a different direction,” he said.
His colleague Cristie Pellegrini, a pharmacist, was recently promoted to Regional Director of Pharmacies for Clinic Pharmacies, LLC.
Pellegrini earned a bachelor of science in pharmacy from Rutgers University in 1999 and later joined the Sonoma County Indian Health Project, first as a staff pharmacist, then as pharmacy director.
A year ago, she accepted a new challenge at Clinic Pharmacies, which establishes pharmacies within clinics.
“Putting pharmacies inside of clinics so patients do not leave without their medication is incredible,” she said. “I’ve had people cry at the window. They’ll say, ‘This is $300 at [a drug store], and you guys are only charging me $30.’ And they just are so happy and thrilled.”
During her brief tenure, Pellegrini has already overseen the establishment of three new Northern Californian pharmacies and manages several others — with plans to expand nationwide.
Her desire to “solve problems on a bigger level,” she said, fueled her pursuit of the EMHA degree. She chose USC Price’s program because of its sophisticated distance learning format and the strength of the Trojan Family.
“I like being a part of the exciting changes that are happening in health care right now,” she said. “Through the EMHA program, I’m able to discuss important topics with the professors, and I’ve made some lifelong friends with my colleagues in the cohort.”
Mitchell A. Medland Jr. works in a different segment of the pharmaceutical industry, as a key account manager at Pfizer in Southern California. He recently accepted an assignment at the company’s New York headquarters to help manage brand strategy for the Medical Group/Integrated Delivery Network Key Account Manager Group.
While earning his bachelor of science in business administration and marketing from the University of California, Riverside, Medland, a Pasadena native, began working at a telecommunications company in a variety of roles, including sales.
In 2005, he returned to his original passion – health care – and joined Pfizer as a sales representative.
“I went into the pharmaceutical business, because it gave me the best of both worlds,” he said. “I had that commercial experience from a sales perspective, but then also the science of understanding medicines and disease states and how they all fit together.”
He did rotations in finance and operations, and then moved into a district business manager position with a sales team covering Southern and Central California.
Two years ago, he earned the promotion to his current position of key account manager, where he helps health care providers and systems formalize their processes for appropriately diagnosing, managing and treating patients.
Medland enrolled in USC Price’s EMHA program for an industry-specific educational experience — a complement to the MBA that he recently earned from the University of Maryland.
“My goal going into the EMHA was to have a broader understanding of where the health care market is going,” he said. “And from that perspective, my knowledge base is 100 times what it was. I’ve been able to sit in meetings and help our strategy teams formulate our operational plan moving forward, with health care reform in context.”
Medland gleaned this knowledge not only from his professors, but also from his experienced peers.
“The level of talent and diversity of the group has been amazing,” he said. “We all came from different backgrounds and different parts of health care. And so that just added to the experience, because you grow to better understand the perspectives of others.”
Sharon Kenny, a registered nurse, also values the wide-ranging experiences of her cohort.
“In our courses, there are doctors, lawyers, some who sell medical equipment, some who work with the computer systems — it’s all very valuable, and you learn a lot,” she said.
Originally from Jackson, Miss., Kenny herself brings nearly 20 years of professional experience to the table. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from New Mexico State University.
When Kenny’s three children were in college, tragedy struck, and one of her sons died in a car accident. She decided to take a travel assignment in the Emergency Department at LAC + USC Medical Center, and ended up staying in Los Angeles from 2008 until 2014.
“I got to see a whole lot, and that’s when I really started saying, ‘what can I do better to make health care better?’” she explained. “That’s what really opened my eyes to it. How they didn’t really have the resources in the community. You know, we were their only hope. So that’s really where I got inspired.”
Soon thereafter, she enrolled in USC’s EMHA. She sees plenty of dysfunction in health care, but believes that “it can flow smoothly, and it can be cost-effective and it can be quality care.”
Kenny said she hopes to apply what she’s learned in EMHA program to establish a patient care home business in Baton Rouge, La.
She added, “If you’re going in the right direction, and you believe in the right things, you want to help others.”