Kurt J. Darr is a Professor Emeritus of Hospital Administration in the Department of Health Services Management and Leadership.
It is the "ah-ha" moment on the face of a student who suddenly grasps a complex concept that helps Professor Darr feel so professionally fulfilled. Since his first full-time academic appointment at GW in 1973, he has found the elusive "joy in work," a concept described by the master management theorist W. Edwards Deming. Dr. Darr says, "I am stimulated by the pedagogical demands of the classroom and the challenge of making learning an exciting and rewarding experience for students." Equally satisfying, he notes, is that many of those same students are "helping to remediate the health and medical problems of people in the United States and throughout the world."
After earning the Juris Doctor and a Master of Hospital Administration, Dr. Darr gained hands-on experience as an administrator at the Mayo Clinic and in the United States Navy Medical Service Corps before turning to a career in academics. In addition to a doctoral degree, he has completed post-doctoral fellowships with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services), the World Health Organization and what is now the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education. Dr. Darr calls his current teaching position in the School's Department of Health Services Management and Leadership "the culmination of a career in health services administration that spans more than four decades."
