As a high schooler, Kate Sangervasi aspired to be a nurse. Then, she laughs, “I took AP Biology, and all of that changed.”

After college, Kate began a career in communications and PR in New York. While working remotely during the pandemic, she had another career-influencing epiphany. COVID, she says, demonstrated how important safe and efficient healthcare delivery is. “I realized there are a lot of opportunities on the business side of healthcare.”

She quit her job in New York and took a position with HCA Healthcare in marketing and communications that enabled her to enter the healthcare field and be closer to family. “I was learning a lot at work,” she says, “but because I was newer to the industry, I started thinking about going back to school to get some more core business capabilities and just [to learn] about healthcare in general.”

Kate found what she was looking for in the Vanderbilt MMHC program. “I loved that I could take core business classes while also taking healthcare applications of those classes,” she says. “I wanted a program that was similar to an MBA but with a healthcare focus. I liked the idea of being in class with peers within the industry and across different disciplines—physicians, nursing leaders, pharmacists, and people on the business side.

“It’s a great mix of people in the industry. And I found that I learned so much from their perspectives. What I do in communications is think about all of our different stakeholders and try to communicate value to them. Being able to hear a physician's point of view, versus a nurse's point of view, versus someone who's sitting in a corporate office was invaluable to me.”

In addition to gaining knowledge from her peers, Kate also built a network. “Because I'd been in New York for so long, I really didn't have a professional network in Nashville anymore, even though it was my hometown. I was really looking to build a network of peers in my industry from whom I could learn. So having that small class size where I could really get to know everyone meant a lot.”

Looking back, as she neared completion of a program she describes as “challenging but manageable and respectful of work-life balance,” Kate credits the MMHC with “giving me confidence in my management skills. It's helped me learn so much about business and the business of healthcare specifically, and I'm really excited to be able to take everything I've learned and continue to apply it to my career.”

Fun Fact: Kate lived and worked in New York for 10 years.

“Being able to hear a physician's point of view, versus a nurse's point of view, versus someone who's sitting in a corporate office was invaluable to me.”