Three students in the MHA program of the Milken Institute School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management won 3rd place in the Fourth Annual Cleveland Clinic MBA/MHA Case Competition. The GW team, consisted of first-year students Colin McMillan and Lexi Martins, and second-year student Khang Vuong.
HPM Professor and Chair Thomas LaVeist expressed pride in the achievement, in which the GW HPM team surpassed groups from many of our peer institutions, including two health administration teams from the University of Minnesota and three teams from the University of Michigan. The GW team also bested groups from some of the nation’s top masters programs for business administration, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
HPM Professor Leonard Friedman, who directs the department’s MHA program, applauded the team for being “sharp, professional, and poised.”
A total of 52 teams competed in the event, which involved providing a solution to a complex strategic decision the Clinic faces in providing services in its southern Ohio region. The responses had to be submitted within three-and-a-half days and were judged to whittle the competitors down to 16 teams. GW as among the teams invited to Cleveland on April 13th and 14th to present their solutions to a group of judges including clinicians and administrators from the Cleveland Clinic, one of the largest and most respected hospitals in the country. After two elimination rounds, the four final teams—including GW’s—presented to both their competitors and members of the Clinic’s senior leadership.
“Our team did a good job with the judges' questions and asked solid questions to the judges in an engaging conversation,” said Teaching Assistant Professor Douglas Anderson, who coached the team.
“I am confident we will be back next year, and I expect that we will take first place,” LaVeist says. Anderson and Friedman agree.