The UCLA Program in Health Policy and Management has had an outstanding year. We are very proud of our academic and student achievements. Dr. Hector Rodriguez received the Jon Thompson Prize for Young Investigators, which was presented at the AUPHA Annual Meeting in Charleston, SC. Dr. Rodriguez is associate professor of health policy and management, associate director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity, and a faculty associate of the VA Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior. Dr. Rodriguez’s research focuses on understanding the organizational influences on medical care quality and public health system effectiveness, performance measurement, and patients’ experiences of ambulatory care. He serves as the lead faculty advisor for the organizational behavior cognate of the PhD program in Health Services Research at UCLA. Dr. Rodriguez earned his PhD in Health Policy / Medical Sociology from Harvard University, MPH in Health Administration from University of California, Berkeley, and BA in Urban Studies and Planning from University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Leah Vriesman, Assistant Professor, who has her MHA and MBA from the University of Minnesota and her PhD from UCLA, has taken the position as Director of Executive Education, including the Executive MPH Program, in the Department of Health Services. The EMPH Program was recently awarded a full six- year CAHME accreditation. Being awarded a U.S. Fulbright award in 2010-2011, Leah is returning from a year sabbatical in Germany at the University of Applied Sciences, Neu Ulm in Bavaria, teaching healthcare management and researching the use of social media and personal health records in Germany.
Dr. Diana Hilberman, Professor and Program Director, was appointed to the CAHME Standards Council for a two year term beginning in Fall 2011. She is also joining the HAP/AUPHA editorial Board for Graduate Students.
The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences ranked the UCLA Health Services Doctoral Program 2nd nationally based on an evaluation on publications per faculty, citations per faculty, faculty awards, diversity and student placement.
With respect to our students, this year, two of our Health Services students received Winston Health Policy Scholarships. In addition, our UCLA Health Policy and Management student team took first place in the first Southern California College Bowl Case Competition.
Every year, our Health Services Alumni Association holds its Annual Leaders of Today, Leaders of Tomorrow Dinner at which we honor individuals of national significance in health. This year we honored two outstanding people with the HSAA Leaders of Today Award. Robert Brook, MD, MPH, DSc., is Professor of Health Services and Professor of Medicine at UCLA, Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars’ Program at UCLA, Director of the Rand Program in Health Policy, and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Brook is internationally recognized for his research on quality assessment and assurance and for the development and use of health status measurements in health policy, the efficiency and effectiveness of medical care, and variations in use of services by geographic area. Our second honoree was Molly Coye, MD, MPH, Chief Innovation Officer of UCLA. Dr Coye has been CEO and President of CalRHIO (non-profit California health information exchange organization) and Chief Executive Officer of the Health Technology Center. She also served as a Senior Advisor to the Public Health Institute until January 2010. Previously, Dr. Coye served in both the public and private sectors as Senior Vice President of the West Coast Office of The Lewin Group. She was the Director of the California Department of Health Services from 1991 to 1993.