After spending eight years in corporate sales, Esther Smith jumped into health care. At MissionPoint Health Partners, a subsidiary of Ascension Healthcare, she moved up to a significant level of responsibility — managing senior-level partnerships with health systems across Indiana and Missouri. In that role, she oversees all population health and Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiatives involving more than 250,000 members.

Then she decided to apply to the MMHC program. “I realized that, in the changing world of health care, your experience and talent will get you so far,” Esther explains, “But with additional education, more opportunities will be there for you.

“A degree from Vanderbilt opens doors that simply may have been very hard to get through before. I look at [the MMHC] as a springboard for the next few decades of my career.”

Though she remained focus on the long term, Esther also found that the program paid benefits even during her year of study. “I am able to draw directly form my classroom and team work experience and apply it to my daily work,” she says. “I have had so many ‘a-ha’ moments related to the economic, operational and financial components of health care that have seemed so complex to me in the past. This newfound knowledge allows me to interact with health care executives on a deeper level with additional confidence.” 

The experience of learning and working on projects alongside other health care professionals also has broadened Esther’s perspective. “Sitting in class next to someone who is a surgeon and also someone who works for an insurance payer provides such amazing insight that I may not have had on my own,” she says. “The experience has been extremely rewarding.”

“Sitting in class next to a surgeon and also someone who works for an insurance payer provides such amazing insight that I may not have had on my own.”