Drury University faculty, students, and staff, along with several Springfield-area healthcare leaders, gathered on Thursday at Drury’s O’Reilly Enterprise Center as a series of plaques were dedicated honoring their support of Drury’s Master of Health Administration (MHA) program, which began this fall.
“This program is built on the chassis of a liberal arts university, a university that trains you on the humanities,” Drury Board of Trustees member and program leader Steve Edwards ’88 told those gathered. “And I think that foundation makes us especially unique, because in the humanities we learn to serve others.”
Edwards, the former CoxHealth President and CEO, teamed with former Mercy Springfield Communities COO Jay Guffey to launch the program. Guffey is now MHA Program Director.
Drury’s MHA program is a one-of-a-kind cooperation between CoxHealth, Mercy Springfield Communities, Burrell Behavioral Health, Mid-America Transplant, and the Edwards family to provide support, resources, and expertise.
The program is designed to prepare the next generation of healthcare leaders. The concentrated two-year curriculum is a seated degree program designed to accommodate working professionals and full-time students. The seated courses are taught by preeminently qualified healthcare leaders and healthcare academicians to provide students with a blend of cutting-edge theory and real-life experience. The first cohort includes 12 students.
“Our MHA program is grounded in the practice of collaboration,” Drury President Dr. Jeff Frederick said. “The idea that partners can work together in word and in deed to make our community stronger, to make our community more creative, and more transformative, and to make our community healthier. That is the task in front of our health care leaders.”
University Provost Dr. Beth Harville, whom Edwards credited as being key to launching the curriculum this fall, spoke about the program’s exceptional nature.
“This program is distinct and unique because it was shaped in partnership with all of our healthcare leaders that are here today, and those who were unable to join us,” she said. “These are the people who understand the realities of the field. This program is not about theory; it’s about the real world that these leaders will practice in today and in the future.”
If you’d like to learn more about Drury’s MHA program, please visit drury.edu/graduate/mha.