Megan Leach began working at Huntsville Hospital in 2006 as a patient registration representative. She has since risen to become the director of medical staff services, a role that oversees credentialing and privileges and provides guidance to the hospital’s medical staff about bylaws and regulatory compliance.

When she moved into her current role in 2020—amid the COVID-19 pandemic—she was too busy helping the hospital manage what she describes as “a very difficult time for healthcare in general” to pursue the additional education she had long desired. “I kept putting it off,” Megan says. But in 2024, she decided “the time was now, and my employer fully supported me.”

The Vanderbilt MMHC was an easy choice; several of her colleagues were graduates of the program and highly recommended it. “These are individuals I respect tremendously,” she says. “I knew the education they received through the MMHC had elevated their success in our health system.”

Megan credits the size and diversity of her class with significantly adding to her experience in the program. “The small class size has really allowed me to get to know my classmates,” she says. “And because we had been largely unfamiliar with most of the concepts we were studying, we enjoyed learning new skills together.

“Attending class with people who are completely different from me and at different stages of their careers has been rewarding. I loved taking different perspectives into my daily life.”

As she neared graduation, Megan looked back on her learning journey. “I have tools in my toolbox I did not have before,” she says. “I can speak to the basics of finance and accounting, which had been completely unfamiliar to me.

“This program was the right decision: 13 months of work and education were worth the investment in the rest of my career.”