When she was growing up, Gina Reppucci’s father always told her she could be anything she wanted—except a doctor or a nurse (he knew she couldn’t stand the sight of blood). So what did she do? “Obviously,” she jokes, “I accepted a position at a dialysis company.”

During her second week at Fresenius, Gina says, she “nearly passed out” during a Dialysis 101 presentation. Fortunately, she works in the company’s legal department rather than on its clinical side. As part of a team of around 60 attorneys, Gina supports Fresenius Kidney Care, the dialysis services arm of the organization. While her client is the company, that company is comprised of a wide range of employees, from social workers and nurses to operational managers and business leaders.

“I decided to do the MMHC program,” she says, “because I couldn’t think of a better way to help support my client—a vertically integrated healthcare provider—than to gain a deeper understanding of the business of healthcare.”

Gina looked at other programs across the country, including several in the Boston area where she works. She concluded that “there are none like Vanderbilt’s MMHC. I chose the program because the best way to learn about any industry is from the people who actually do the work, and I knew that sitting in class with healthcare practitioners would provide me with access to colleagues from whom I could learn in a way you just can’t from a textbook.”

To attend class sessions, Gina joined remotely every Thursday and flew to Nashville about once a month. She believes the commute was worth it. “Increasingly, the employees I support are businesspeople whose frames of reference include economics, finance, and accounting,” she says. “This program has helped me to better speak their language. It has also given me a vocabulary to speak about operational functions within my department; process management and throughput are essential to a well-functioning law department, and there are absolutely skills I’ve learned in the program that will translate into process improvements within my team.”

Fun Fact: Gina has two rescue dogs – Sadie and The Bubs – who live their best lives every day.

I looked at programs across the country, and there are none like Vanderbilt’s MMHC.