USA Health is home to a multigenerational UAB group with a singular family feel. And just like your typical family, when a new offspring enters the world, their UAB ‘siblings’ step up to make sure they are taken care of, to make sure they are nourished with knowledge and to make sure those that are in a seedling stage of their work career grow to their full potential.

“Almost everyone that I work with has been through the residency process and knows what it is like to be a resident. Many of them have taken a special interest in me to ensure I have a great residency,” said Ashton Hennig (MSHA Class 50), administrative resident, USA Health. “All four of our top administrators are UAB grads as well as three out of four of our assistant administrators. I don’t think I would be able to do what I do without the many UAB connections at USA.”

And then there is the commitment and connection to each other. They have walked the same halls and they have had some of the same professors (yes, every MSHA graduate at USA has had at least one lecture from Professor Emeritus Howard Houser, PhD).

“My strongest network of healthcare leaders started while I was in the MSHA/MBA dual program,” said Sam Dean (MSHA Class 39), hospital administrator, USA Medical Center. “The program encourages networking among all UAB grads and those relationships lead to the highest quality of mentoring and development in the years following your completion of the program.”

The early UAB connections last entire careers because of the depth to which they are developed in a sapling stage of knowledge and education. Each cohort spends its first two years together in classes, in meetings, in study groups, in social settings and more. It develops a long-lasting bond built on a strong foundation.

“Great students and great faculty lead to a great program where the relationships developed through the cohort type environment lead to immediate network connections that only grow over time,” said Thad Phillips (MSHA Class 33, MSHI 2003), assistant chief HIPAA compliance officer, USA Health. 

Not only do the connections grow over time, but so grows the learned knowledge. It grows within the person and it grows within the network as the new knowledge learned becomes the new knowledge shared.

“Most of us in hospitals are facing the same challenges and often we are all trying to find a solution that someone else has already figured out so there is no reason to ‘reinvent the wheel,’” said Alice Johnson (MSHA Class 43), assistant administrator, USA Health Ancillary Services. “There have been dozens and dozens of times that I have reached out to a UAB connection for help with a certain issue or just to find out how they do something that may help us improve. Copying best practices is a better use of everyone’s time and building on one another’s successes allows all of us to make ourselves better.”

By making themselves better they make the health system better. By making the health system better they make health care better. By making health care better they make their patients better. By making their patients better they make their world better. And in turn, they make our world better.

Ambitious USA leaders connected by viable UAB networks cultivate organic outcomes that strengthen everyone within their landscape.