Cathy Malone has a lot on her plate. At Maury Regional Medical Center, she oversees the operations, budgeting, strategic and capital planning, marketing and other functions of the hospital’s cardiopulmonary services — which include a 25-bed cardiology stepdown unit, a 24-bed intensive care stepdown, a 24-bed critical care unit, the cardiac cath lab, cardiac diagnostics, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, respiratory care and a six-bed sleep center.

On top of that, she’s a working mother with three children (ages 16, 9 and 4) at home.

When she was promoted to her current position in 2009, Cathy viewed her job through the lens of someone who is a nurse by training and rose to become a nurse executive. The MMHC program at Vanderbilt, she says, taught her to see the work through multiple lenses at once.

“Owen has allowed me to better understand the financial aspects of my job,” she says. “I learned an enormous amount from economics and accounting that has helped me with what I do every day. They have also helped me understand the viewpoints of my colleagues in different areas and how to look at a situation in a different way than I could before.

“It was a difficult decision for me as a full-time employee and mom to return to school. But knowing that this was a 13-month program and that I was supported by my family, employer and Owen made my decision much easier.”