After finishing his undergraduate degree in health care management, Kyle Kellum became director of diagnostic and therapy services at a health care center in Grangeville, Idaho. Because of experiences his own family had had in the health care system, he was driven to help make it better. That’s why he enrolled in DMU’s master of health care administration degree program.
“The experience was exceptional. Most of the things I was learning, as I was learning them, were also challenges I was dealing with at work. It was uncanny,” he says. “The interaction I had with faculty and other students was much more positive than I thought it would be, too.”
So was the impact of earning his M.H.A.: He met the chief executive officer of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Medical Center at a professional conference, where the two discussed a chief operating officer job description Kellum was developing; four months later, the CEO invited him to take that position at Pagosa Springs.
“He wanted someone with an M.H.A.,” Kellum says. “Our service area is rapidly expanding. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, and I’m continuing to learn. That opportunity has come my way as a result of the M.H.A. program.”