Shilpa Reddy is someone most people would regard as highly accomplished. Dr. Reddy, a pediatric neurologist, heads the Pediatric Epilepsy program at Monroe Carell Jr. Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. She has launched new subdivisions, such as a Ketogenic Diet program to serve more patients with hard-to-treat epilepsy, developed new treatment protocols and co-authored numerous publications and abstracts.

Ask what she considers her proudest accomplishment, however, and she will cite her work in the Master of Management in Healthcare. As she looked back on her first year, she says, “I spent time studying in high school, college and medical school, and worked many nights and weekends during residency before becoming a pediatric neurology attending physician, but learning material that is brand-new to me, trying to apply it to my current job and career, while continuing the same clinical, academic and administrative work I usually do has been incredibly difficult—and, therefore, my biggest achievement.”

She also has found the experience incredibly rewarding. “I enrolled in the MMHC program to help understand how individual program needs fit into the bigger goals and obligations of the entire organization --both from a financial and operational standpoint,” she says. “In the future,I hope my degree and experience will help me lead teams on a bigger scale.”

She found encouragement in the number of her female classmates and women who had graduated from the MMHC program —including Meg Rush, President of the Children’s Hospital —who already have achieved high levels of professional success. Her executive coach in the Leadership Development Program, she says, “provided me with support I didn’t even realize I needed. There are too many academic lessons to count, but I have found at least one lesson in each class that I have applied to help the epilepsy program run more successfully.

“Prepare for hard work and long hours, but know that everything you learn is a pearl. I already feel this program is changing how I present myself and ideas for our epilepsy program. On a larger scale, it has changed my career goals and helped me shape the path to achieve them.”

Prepare for hard work and long hours, but know that everything you learn is a pearl.