AUPHA: What's your educational background and why did you choose the area(s) of study that you did?
Huppertz: BA in English from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ph.D. and MA in Social Psychology from Syracuse University.
I loved the research that was being conducted in psychology, and wanted to study its application to business. I shortly discovered that an enormous amount of research in marketing was based on social psychology, so it was natural that I moved in that direction, and I found the intersection of marketing and psychology fascinating. I took courses in the School of Management as well as in psychology. Our program was methodologically rigorous, and I felt very well prepared to go into the marketing research business after completing my Ph.D.
AUPHA: Tell us about the jobs you held before you got into academe.
Huppertz: After completing my Ph.D., I decided that I needed at least a couple of years of practical business experience before becoming a professor of marketing, so I joined a small marketing communications firm as director of marketing research. Two years turned into 26. I got in on the ground floor of a wonderful company, and I helped to build it, becoming a VP, then partner, and then managing partner. We grew from a handful of employees in Syracuse, NY to 250 employees in 7 offices around the U.S. I began a healthcare practice in the 1980’s after hospitals and health plans started calling us asking for marketing studies and marketing plans, which is how I got into healthcare. We did a lot of great work for these clients, and the projects I did in patient satisfaction coincided with my academic research interest in customer satisfaction, which of course has become enormously important in healthcare today.
AUPHA: Where have you held faculty appointments during your career?
Huppertz: Union Graduate College. I have been here since 2004-05. In 2008-09, I served as interim president of the College.
AUPHA: What is your current position and what made you choose the program you are currently appointed to?
Huppertz: Associate Professor and Chair, MBA Healthcare Management Program.
First of all, I work in a School of Management, which fits me. When I decided to return to academia, I sought positions only in business schools. Second, Union has a long history of high quality academics in a small college environment, and a very collegial faculty, which impressed me. Third, I could see how graduate-level management education can make significant contributions to the healthcare system, and I saw great opportunities here.
AUPHA: Tell us what's unique about your program, faculty, students.
Huppertz: Ours is a specialty MBA in Healthcare Management. It’s a full MBA curriculum focused on the healthcare industry, bringing management education – finance, accounting, statistics, economics, marketing, HR, operations, strategy – to bear on the healthcare industry. This curriculum prepares our students extraordinarily well for the needs of the modern healthcare organization.
I really look up to my colleagues on the faculty. They care. They want students to learn, they want to teach what is needed in healthcare today, and we all work as a team. Everyone is also committed to scholarship, and we all have active research programs exploring interesting and important questions, which is unusual to find in a small college that historically focused on teaching. I could not ask for better colleagues to work with.
Also unique is the prominent role the Healthcare MBA Program plays in the School of Management and the College. The high quality of our Program, our faculty, our students, and our alums represents a great source of pride for the College. We receive a lot of attention and support from our faculty colleagues and administrators.
AUPHA: What's the greatest challenge you face in your role at your current program?
Huppertz: Scale. We’re a niche program in a small market.
AUPHA: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment during your tenure at your current program?
Huppertz: Personally, it has been my research, which I needed to re-start after many years outside academia. I love this part of my job, and I wish I had more time to do it.
I also feel I have brought an important new dimension to the Program, through my experience in corporate management and my years of working with hundreds of clients in many different industries. I have been able to appreciate how healthcare is unique and different, and how it is similar to other industries, and I teach this to my students.
AUPHA: What keeps you in this field, despite the challenges mentioned above?
Huppertz: Challenges are part of life’s work, not reasons to leave it. I have been very fortunate in my business career, and I’ve continued this streak in my current academic position. The healthcare management field is dynamic, complex, and fascinating; we have an excellent product that positions our students very well to take leadership roles within it, and I feel I can make a contribution through my teaching and scholarship.
AUPHA: If making a living/money were not a consideration, what would you be doing instead or what would you do in retirement?
Huppertz: My wife thinks this IS my retirement. Compared to my corporate job, the pace in academia is much more relaxed and the stress level much lower. So is the pay.
For years, I wanted to be a professor, and now I get to do it. I can’t imagine doing anything else, and I hope to continue until I can no longer be effective as a teacher and scholar.