Connect with MHA Alumni
Our MHA program prides itself on our deep connection with the healthcare administration industry. We strive to connect our students with industry pioneers and professionals throughout the program, and networking with alumni is one of the most significant benefits of the Eccles School’s MHA program.
Networking opportunities are actively infused into almost all program activities and are the backbone of our student’s success.
Alumni Leadership Team
Abby Meier Streuling
Abby Meier Streuling
Abby completed her MHA at the U of U in the Spring of 2020. She also holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Public Health from Oregon State University with a focus in healthcare management and a minor in business and entrepreneurship.
She currently serves as the Corporate Responsibility Officer for the South Houston Market in the Texas Division of CommonSpirit Health. Prior to that, she was a Patient Access Manager and Administrative Fellow with the same organization.
Prior to joining CommonSpirit Health, Abby held roles in the Patient Experience department at Oregon Health and Science University, and in Marketing, Strategy and Operations at University Neuropsychiatric Institute, now known as Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
David Contreras
David Contreras
David graduated from the MPH/MHA program in 2020. Upon graduation, he completed an Administrative Fellowship at Northwell Health in New York. As a fellow, he worked on initiatives driving perioperative throughput, strategic planning, digital transformation, and patient access optimization. After finishing the fellowship program, he worked in project management targeting regional program development, market analysis, space, and real estate planning, and change management.
In his current position, David works as the Executive Program Director for the Chief Medical Officer of Northwell Health. He helps implement a system-wide physician strategy targeting research, quality, access, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Prior to completing school, David worked in global health living abroad in Uganda, Nepal, and Romania. Outside of healthcare, he enjoys skiing, travel, and performing with the New York Chamber Choir.
Justin Maxfield
Justin Maxfield
Justin graduated from the MBA/MHA program in 2018. Justin’s healthcare career started as a medical receptionist at BYU-Idaho’s on-campus clinic. He was quickly promoted to Student Area Director and was also elected President of the BYU-I Healthcare Administration Society. These experiences catalyzed Justin’s love for healthcare administration. After graduating from BYU-I, Justin attended the University of Utah, where he earned his MBA/MHA. While pursuing his degree, Justin performed consulting work for Intermountain and completed an internship in Revenue Cycle at the University of Utah. Prior to graduating, Justin took a job as Business Data Analyst with a healthcare startup company called OnsiteCare.
After two years with OnsiteCare, Justin wanted to return to operations and became an Administrative Fellow at Geisinger in Danville, PA. In this role, Justin worked on various executive projects pertaining to orthopedic joint costs, COVID telemedicine, ED tent operations, and OR throughput. After completing his fellowship, Justin was a System Manager in psychiatry, overseeing operations at 4 inpatient units and a consulting service for 12 hospitals.
After 3 year in PA, Justin’s family wanted to go back West, so Justin applied to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, without knowing where Grand Junction was. Justin was hired as Director of Inpatient Provider Groups but recently transitioned to a new role supporting surgical specialties.
Justin is a native of Idaho Falls, ID and after high school, he served a proselytizing church mission in Leon, Mexico. While in Leon, Justin developed a profound love for teaching, serving other, Mexican food and culture. Justin met his wife, Nicole, at a rival high school sporting event. Years later they reconnected and were married. Justin and Nicole have two beautiful girls: Remington (8), Sloane (4). In his leisure time, Justin enjoys cycling, basketball, and spending time outside with his family. They couldn’t be happier to have a place to call home in Fruita, CO.
Reece Pickering
Reece Pickering
Since graduating with his MHA mini 2019, Reece has worked in multiple roles at Primary Children’s Hospital. Reece is currently the Program Manager for the Stabilization and Mobile Response Program. His program is offered in collaboration with the State of Utah, providing in-home behavioral health services in a nine-county area. A current focus for Reece is outreach to drive program awareness, operationalizing services offered by his team, and developing the team that supports it. Regularly drawing on insights gained during his MHA, he credits lessons learned in leadership courses as invaluable tools in his toolkit. Inviting others to join with him has been a key tactic as he’s implemented projects and programming in his various roles. He’s learned firsthand that so much more can be accomplished when teaming.
Reece is currently involved with Utah Healthcare Executives, supporting the work of the membership committee. In his spare time, he is trying his hand at learning French and also taking guitar lessons.
Reece looks forward to supporting the growth and connection of the Utah MHA Alumni networking in the coming years.
Events
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Alumni Spotlight
Jason Fox | MPA/MHA degree, 2012 graduate
My sister had just completed the MPA program, and I was interested in getting an advanced degree. At the time the MHA wasn’t a stand-alone program but could be paired with a few other degree options. Based on my understanding of the MPA program, the MHA seemed like a good dual degree to pursue. I had been working for U Health since 2008 and living in Salt Lake City. It was a slight change in terms of determining an Administrative career is where I wanted to pursue my efforts.
The MPA program gave me a great framework for systems of administration and how they function, particularly in governmental systems. The interest in the MHA program was healthcare-specific training from a business background. I felt that there would be specific skills in the MHA program that would apply to the Administrative career I was interested in.
I wanted to have a strong business background specific to healthcare, as my intention is/was to remain in the healthcare sector. I was seeking business-based classes like Operations Management, Managerial Accounting, etc. I felt that if I could pair the MPA and MHA programs together I would be attractive from both a healthcare perspective, as well as a non-profit government entity perspective, i.e., U Health.
2011-2012, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Preceptor Donald Milligan, Executive Director Cancer Hospital.
For me, I think it was the completion of a journey that at the beginning seemed so daunting, but by the end went by so quickly. Packing 2 master’s degrees into three years, including a year-long internship, while also working full-time and trying to raise a family was a test in endurance. I feel I was most productive during that time, and anytime I feel stressed/overwhelmed I think back to that time in my life and realize I can accomplish almost anything as long as I have the dedication and commitment to stick to a plan. One way I “checked off” progress was only thinking of things in terms of semesters completed. At 6 semesters over 3 years, each semester is basically 16.6% progress towards graduation. So I never thought about how long things would take at the moment and would only reflect on where I was posting each semester. So being 33.33% done after 2 semesters sounded way better than saying I still have 2 more years to go.
I chose to complete a year-long post-graduate training to move beyond discipline boundaries to provide optimal services to children and adolescents with special health care needs(more info at URLEND.org). I was a part of a team that was able to reconstruct how autism services for families are determined at the state level, and as such was able to rewrite the Utah Medicaid Autism manual to expedite services to families once their kiddo received a formal autism diagnosis. Along with that team, we developed a multidisciplinary care team model to expedite autism diagnosis and were able to reduce days to diagnosis in our clinic by close to 6 months.
I believe it has been very important in my career advancement. For the things I am involved in, without an MHA, I would likely not be a viable candidate. I believe there are so many people graduating with advanced degrees that if you don’t get a degree and differentiate yourself with your specific areas of interest, you are bound to be overlooked. I also think principles like the theory of constraints and quality improvement/process improvement are tangible skills learned through the program that can be applied daily for the operations work I am involved in.
MHA Alumni
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