The past four years have seen a flurry of activity and accomplishments for the Division of Health Systems Management and Policy (HSMP) and the MHA program. In 2010, the program was moved into the new School of Public Health, and in 2012 the program was re-accredited for a full seven-year term by CAHME, a first for the program since it was initially accredited in 1991. The Division faculty has grown from three full-time members to seven, and will add one more by fall 2015. During this same period, the Division has grown from one academic program to three, adding both an MPH concentration and a PhD program in Health Systems and Policy. An Executive track for the MHA program, designed for working professionals with five or more years of full-time job experience, launches in June 2015.
Following comprehensive strategic planning in preparation for the 2011 CAHME visit, more rigorous admission standards were adopted for the MHA program. This has resulted in the last three entering cohorts being the highest qualified in the 24- year history of the program. The newest cohort comes from 11 colleges and universities and six states; 50 percent are women and 50 percent are from U.S. racial and ethnic minority communities. They are pictured here during a weekend immersion for team-building and leadership training at Team Trek, an 800 acre retreat and learning center in Tumbling Shoals, Arkansas.
The most recent faculty members to join the HSMP Division are M. Paige Powell, PhD, MHA, Assistant Professor, previously on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Soumitra Bhuyan, PhD(c), MPH, Assistant Professor, who has been pursuing his doctoral degree in health services research at the School of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Among the senior faculty, David Burchfield, PhD, FHFMA, Associate Professor, is currently serving as the President of the Tennessee Chapter of HFMA, 2014-15; and Dan Gentry, PhD, MHA, Professor and Division Director, recently concluded his term as Chair of the CAHME Board for 2013-14.