Students from the Professional Program in Healthcare Management (PPHM) in the Naveen Jindal School of Management took a trip to St. Louis this past spring for a site visit to Mercy Health System. One of the students said the visit was a powerful reminder of the patient side of healthcare administration.
“I remember a nurse sharing how much it meant that the CEO regularly walked through the ER to check in with staff,” said Clarisse (Nhu-Quynh) Dizon, who graduated from The University of Texas at Dallas in May with a double degree Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management and Biology and is currently an MBA student at the Jindal School. “When we asked the CEO about it, he told us, ‘The ER is the heart of the hospital,’ which made a lasting impression on me because it showed how leadership must be rooted in compassion and visibility.”
As outgoing PPHM student president, Dizon said the most rewarding part for her role was getting to know each student individually and finding ways to support their unique journeys.
“Even though the entire cohort is made up of Healthcare Management majors, our goals were incredibly diverse, ranging from pre-med and pre-law to healthcare IT and operations,” she said. “I was proud to be able to provide resources and opportunities that catered to such a wide range of interests while still keeping the program cohesive.”
One of several undergraduate professional programs at the Jindal School — accounting, computer information systems and technology, finance and marketing also have one — PPHM is devoted to undergraduate students majoring in Healthcare Management.
“The goal for each of the Jindal School’s professional programs is to identify the major’s top students and prepare them for the business world via leadership skills and mentoring opportunities,” said PPHM Director Daniel Karnuta, an assistant professor of instruction in the Jindal School’s Organizations, Strategy and International Management Area. “There is a dual benefit to the programs: first, they give talented students the opportunity to work closely with other highly motivated students with similar career interests, to help prepare them for life after graduation, and second, they produce competent and confident graduates that are poised to succeed in the business world and positively impact the stature of UTD’s business school programs.”
Karnuta said the PPHM cornerstone is a seminar course where industry leaders are brought in each week to talk to the students about what it takes to succeed in the business world and how career paths are not typically what a student expects after graduation. The guest speakers are executives who cover topics like leadership qualities, ethics, government relations, negotiating skills, information technology and artificial intelligence, the importance of networking and problem-solving challenges faced by leaders.
“Most speakers start off by explaining how they got to their current positions through a winding career path with many unexpected turns, and then they move into their topic of expertise” he said. “Students walk away from each seminar with a lot to think about and a very high-level contact to add to their network. We have also arranged an educational trip each spring or summer for PPHM members who wish to learn about the healthcare industry with hands-on experience.” The trips are either to a complex top-rated health system (e.g., Cleveland Clinic and Mercy), or to Washington, DC where various government and private healthcare entities are visited.
Aditi Mallela, a healthcare management senior and incoming PPHM student president, said she has been working with Karnuta and Dizon to plan what next year will look like and that she looks forward to engaging with the PPHM members.
“One of the biggest lessons I learned from observing Clarisse was the importance of clear communication and ensuring that every member feels valued and heard,” Mallela said. “She set a great example of staying organized while being approachable, which are qualities I aim to carry on to this year by ensuring an inclusive and open environment in PPHM.”
Karnuta, who was CFO at Conifer Health Solutions before joining the Jindal School faculty in 2017, said the healthcare system trips that PPHM members take are all about making industry connections.
“I got my connections for our Cleveland Clinic trip in 2023 through my son, who at the time was in medical school at The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine,” he said. “For the Mercy trip, my connection was a PPHM graduate, Sandra Tony, who graduated May 2024. As the story goes, we had met with a health system executive during one of our Washington, DC trips who was very impressed with our students. When this executive took a new position at Mercy in St. Louis, she remembered our students and contacted us to see if we had any that would be interested in applying for a management training program that she was setting up at Mercy. Well, Sandra applied and got one of those coveted positions at Mercy.”
Karnuta contacted Tony when she got settled in at Mercy, and she coordinated the PPHM student Mercy trip.
Mallela said she found the Mercy experience to be truly amazing.
“Touring the central departments and seeing what happens daily made me realize how essential the [administrative] work behind the scenes is,” she said. “There is so much of which patients do not witness.”
During the visit to the ICU at Mercy, the group observed a patient placed on a machine called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO. The life-support system functions as an artificial heart and breathing system to keep patients alive until their systems have a chance to stabilize.
“Watching this technology come to life and realizing what personal interaction is involved in looking after the patient by the doctors, nurses and staff left me in awe,” she said. “The experience highlighted the complexity, dedication and human touch involved in healthcare, which are lessons that cannot be learned in a classroom.”
Mallela said she is grateful for being given the opportunity to lead PPHM this coming year.
“I am excited and look forward to fostering an environment where the members of the program progress in a community of like-minded individuals who wish to strive professionally within the healthcare space,” she said.
