First EMBA Cohort Graduates
Creighton Program Graduates Students from Across the Nation
Colliding worlds. It’s not what immediately comes to mind when you think academic programming. But that is exactly what the Heider College of Business sought to do when it created the Executive MBA in Healthcare Management program two years ago.
“We are constantly looking for ways to make worlds collide so we can unlock creativity and innovation, thus providing value for our students and society,” says Todd Darnold, PhD, associate dean of graduate, professional and leadership programs and the Charles “Mike” Harper Endowed Chair in Business Leadership at the Heider College of Business.
The EMBA program connects the health care and business sectors, providing physicians and health care clinicians the skills and support they need to be equally gifted administrators and managers.
“Innovation is stifled by closed-mindedness,” says Darnold. “We all learn when we look outside our immediate purview. Health care organizations and leaders can learn a lot from business and vice versa. In sharing our unique perspectives, we unleash creativity and innovation.”
The May 18 commencement saw the inaugural EMBA cohort of 12 – nine physicians and three nonclinician leaders – graduate. Laurie Baedke, FACHE, FACMPE, director of health care leadership programs and program director of the Executive MBA in Healthcare Management program at Creighton’s Heider College of Business, could not be more pleased or proud.
“I am so happy for these graduates,” says Baedke. “They took a leap of faith on a new program and bought into the cohort-based learning model.”
Peer learning is woven tightly into the program’s structure. In addition to the adjunct faculty from world-renown health care institutions nationwide, students benefit from learning alongside and from their peers, who bring diverse experiences and skill sets to the cohort, says Baedke.
Patricia Murdock-Langan, MD, chief medical officer at CHI Health Lakeside Hospital in Omaha and CHI Health Midlands Hospitals in Papillion, Nebraska, says the program “has been a journey,” and one that is different from the traditional didactic model of her initial college experience.
“It’s really the cohort interacting, learning from one another, and the faculty that Creighton brings in. Creighton has given us the tools and the people to help us maneuver” from clinicians to administrators, Murdock-Langan says.
“The program allows participants to connect with different leaders across the country,” says Neel Pathak, BPT, MHA, project administrator of ambulatory services at John’s Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and EMBA faculty. “It is crucial to look outside your own little world to see how industry is doing well” in other areas.