From Backpack to Briefcase: Professional Development in Health Care Administration

Packed with insightful examples, interactive exercises and amusing anecdotes, FROM BACKPACK TO BRIEFCASE: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION delivers a comprehensive how-to guide to help students prepare for--and succeed--in their search for the best internships, residencies, fellowships and jobs. This extremely practical book helps students take the knowledge gained in academic programs and apply it in a truthful and positive way that will jumpstart their career in Health Care Administration. In this information-packed book, students will find a variety of tools to help project and enhance their utmost professional identify in order to secure the best professional positions.

Michael R. Meacham, JD, MPH, is associate professor in the Department of Health Leadership and Management at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he teaches Health Policy, Strategic Management and Change Leadership. He also is director of the Office of International and Special Programs, coaches case competition teams and counsels students individually and in informal groups regarding professional development. Meacham has an extensive background in development, enactment and implementation of public policy as well as in leadership and management of health care organizations. In 1998, he was named director of Health System Development for Connecticut's Office of Health Care Access and led administrative improvements in its Certificate of Need Law and other regulatory reforms affecting hospitals. In 2001, he was named vice president for Integrated Health Services at Eastern Connecticut Health Network and was responsible for multiple health care units including administrative and clinical personnel. Named an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University in 2003, he led dramatic improvement in the MHA Program. In addition, Meacham served in the Kansas House of Representatives for eight years. He received his J.D. from the University of Kansas and his M.P.H. from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and Wichita State University.