White Paper
Strengthening the Diversity of Health Care Leaders: Approaches of a Master of Health Administration (MHA) Program
Abstract
Leadership in health care has long been dominated by individuals who do not represent nor reflect the communities they serve. While this was not necessarily intentional since that was true of many organizations in the U.S., it poses a special issue for the health care industry. National associations such as the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and the National Center for Health Care Leadership (NCHL) have worked to encourage the enhanced diversity of health care organizations by promoting men and women of color into leadership positions. While the health care workforce is increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, only a small percentage of high-level health care leaders fall into this same category. This white paper examines reports on the lack of diversity in health care leadership and discusses how health leadership education programs such as the University of Phoenix Master of Health Administration (MHA) program in the College of Health Professions has implemented strategies that might help address this issue.
Authors
Thom J. Sloan, MBA, LFACHE, is a core faculty member with the University of Phoenix in the Master of Health Administration program and has taught at the University for 22 years. Thom has worked in health care for the past 44 years and is currently engaged in consulting work in strategy, marketing, and philanthropy for the health care industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of New Mexico and a Master’s of Business Administration with a concentration in Health Systems Management from the Robert O. Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. For the past 16 years, Thom has focused on serving in healthcare philanthropy roles but previously worked at TMF Health Quality Institute in Austin as the Vice President for Business Development and Communications and at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio as the Administrator of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute. He also served as the Director of Development for the College of Health and Human Services, San Diego State University and the Executive Director of the Student Health and Counseling Center at California State University Fullerton.
Thom has served on numerous state and federal health policy task forces, the editorial board for the Journal of Healthcare Management, chaired the Journal of Philanthropy Advisory Council and several conference planning roles with the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. He is a Lifetime Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (LFACHE).