Galloway, N.J. - Adriana Rose Dion of Ventnor is a chemotherapy nurse who hopes to help run a private practice.

Amanda Gan of Stafford Township, a Certified Health Education Specialist, was recently promoted to a position that requires more administrative and leadership responsibilities.

Robin G. DeShields of Sicklerville has already begun applying the leadership skills she has learned.

“The Healthcare Administration and Leadership MBA program in the Stockton University School of Business was exactly the program I was looking for to help me move forward with my career goals,” DeShields said. “It’s the step I needed to take so I can move up to the next level of leadership in my company.”

Stockton developed the MBA in Healthcare Administration and Leadership program specifically to address the need for leaders in the complex healthcare field. The first cohort of 16 students graduates May 13.

“This program was designed to provide our graduates with the skills and knowledge necessary to reduce inefficiencies and contribute to care enhancement,” said Assistant Professor of Business Studies, Dr. Christian Ehiobuche, the MBA-HAL program chair.  He cited issues ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to the economics of health insurance, regulation, healthcare reform and social justice in healthcare as issues addressed in the program.

“There are some issues unique to healthcare that can’t just be drawn from other management disciplines,” Ehiobuche said.

The program targets professionals working in hospitals, medical practices, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, public health and digital health. Stockton faculty from both the School of Business and School of Health Science participate.

Students cited specific courses and the overall format as being especially helpful to them either in their current jobs, or the job they hope to get.

DeShields said she was able to apply lessons from the Healthcare Operations class to her daily activities at work. She cited the group projects as offering valuable input for her own role as a facilitator of group projects.

“The group work has helped us form an amazing camaraderie as a cohort,” she said.

Emily Pernal of Barnegat said the Law & Ethics for Healthcare Leaders class used “realistic issues that leaders in healthcare face every day and brought valuable perspectives and approaches to address these problems we will face as future leaders.”

Gan said in her current role at the Ocean County Health Department she analyzes and interprets opioid overdose data to help implement targeted interventions to reduce overdoses. The Healthcare Analytics course applied directly to her job.

“Through the use of real healthcare data, Dr. Jenny Wagner has taught our cohort how to manipulate and analyze various datasets,” Gan said. “I have been able to apply my learnings from the course into my current work, which immediately helped me to better work with the overdose data and provided me with opportunities I would not have had.”

“Healthcare Analytics has helped me understand the importance of sorting and grouping data,” Dion said. “Healthcare is full of statistical data. By graphing the data it helps give a visual representation which makes the data easier to understand.”

The graduates are: Talor Beiter, Robin DeShields, Adrianna Dion, Ekellson Exantus, Amanda Gan, Deneen Hill, Virginia Holman, Stephen Kingsbury, Emmy LeFevre, Briana Lambe, Chetia Loch, Shaza Mohamed, Nicole Ong, Sarah Owen, Emily Pernel, and Jennifer Pielhau.

More information on the MBA-HAL program is online at stockton.edu/graduate/mba-healthcare-administration

- Story by Diane D'Amico. Photo by Stacey Clapp