Dan Gentry looks forward to aligning his interests in teaching, practice, and research in his new role as director of the Master of Health Administration (MHA) program based in the Department of Health Management and Policy. Along with leading the program and teaching MHA students professional development skills, Gentry will spend time at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

“Nothing substitutes for practice,” says Gentry, who most recently served at the University of Memphis School of Public Health, where he directed the Division of Health Systems, Management, and Policy; coordinated the doctoral program in health systems and policy; and was special adviser to the dean for strategic planning and accreditation.

Gentry’s recent research emphasis is quality improvement and the patient experience, so having the opportunity to work on projects at the hospital was among the reasons he was attracted to the post here.

“The key to improving health care is working with the people we’re delivering health care to,” he says.

He succeeds Tom Vaughn, who previously served as MHA program director and continues on the faculty as associate professor. Gentry earned his undergraduate degree in biology from the College of Charleston, MHA from the Medical University of South Carolina, and PhD in health services and policy analysis from the University of California, Berkeley.

He plans to do “a lot of listening and observing” before making changes in the program, which has 26 new MHA students this year, plus 30 continuing students.

“We are making some changes, but just around the edges,” Gentry says, citing updating course titles and adding a leadership course as examples.

He points to the MHA Quality Improvement Committee, which includes faculty, student, and alumni representatives, as central in identifying areas that could be stronger, while laying the groundwork for broader changes. Those could come in the form of strengthened financial management courses; information, data, and quality improvement; and communications skills, including presentations and technical writing.

“Dan is a great fit in this department because he values, as do we all, the collaborations across disciplines within health management and policy, and those that form between faculty across the college and campus,” says Keith Mueller, professor and head of the Department of Health Management and Policy. “I know that our MHA program will become even stronger under his leadership, solidifying and even improving its national stature and preparing students who will be the future leaders in health administration.”

Many MHA graduates—the program has a 100 percent post-graduation placement rate and ranks among the top 10 health care management programs nationally—work in management, but the majority initially obtain prestigious post-graduate fellowships.

Gentry’s career has taken him from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and to Memphis, so living in a college town is a new experience.

He admires everything the UI has to offer, particularly the commitment of alumni to the MHA program.

“This is a program with a rich and long history and a great legacy,” Gentry says. “I’m really happy to be here and humbled to be asked to lead the program.”

Photo by John Choate

This story originally appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of InSight.