SIUC Health Care Management

05/08/2025

As we wrap up another great semester in the HCM department, we wanted to take a moment to congratulate our three scholarship winners from the 2024-25 school year! Our final scholarship recipient is Ms. Symantha McSpadden, recipient of the AUPHA Foster G McGaw Scholarship! This scholarship is awarded to a senior in the HCM program to recognize their continued dedication to the program and their academic success while at SIU.

Symantha is a senior at SIU studying Health Care Management. A native of Park Hills, Missouri, Ms. McSpadden originally came to SIU as a chemistry major. She soon switched to Health Care Management after taking a few classes and realizing she had found her niche. As she continued with her HCM coursework, she became interested in healthcare compliance, specifically compliance within long-term care facilities.

In her free time, Ms. McSpadden trains service dogs for medically complex individuals through S.I.T. Service Dogs in Ava, Illinois. Since she started in 2022, she has had four dogs graduate and has helped dozens more with their training. She also enjoys hiking with her personal dog, Thor, and traveling whenever she can.

Symantha will be graduating with her HCM degree this May and completing her internship with Liberty Village of Marion over the summer. She was also accepted into the concurrent Master of Health Administration and Informatics programs at SIUC and will start in the fall of 2025.

Please join us in congratulating Symantha for this excellent achievement!

05/08/2025

Last week, the President of St. Mary’s and Good Samaritan Hospitals, along with the Director of Nursing Operations at St. Mary’s Hospital, had the pleasure of meeting with students from the Kaskaskia College Nursing Department at Kaskaskia College. They discussed future career opportunities at SSM Health. We wish all the students good luck on their final exams this week and blessings for a fulfilling nursing career!

05/07/2025

As we wrap up another great semester in the HCM department, we wanted to take a moment to congratulate our three scholarship winners from the 2024-25 school year! Next up, we have Ms. Sydney Farris, recipient of the Mid-America Healthcare Executives Forum Outstanding Student Award! This award is given to a student who displays exceptional dedication and commitment to the HCM program and holds a GPA of at least 3.75 on all HCM coursework.

Sydney is a rising senior at SIU studying Health Care Management. A native of Ava, IL, Ms. Farris transferred to SIU from John A. Logan. She always knew she wanted to pursue a degree in the healthcare field and after taking an introduction to business course and an accounting course at John A. Logan, she realized she enjoyed the administration aspect. Sydney’s professors state that she is inquisitive and hard-working.

Outside of the classroom, Ms. Farris has been working two jobs and is an active member of her church. She enjoys reading and spending time with her friends and family when she has free time.

Sydney graduated in 2022 from Trico High School. She is the daughter of Dawn and late Matthew Farris, who both also graduated from SIU. She expects to complete her HCM degree in December of 2026.

Please join us in congratulating Sydney for this excellent achievement!

05/06/2025

As we wrap up another great semester in the HCM department, we wanted to take a moment to congratulate our three scholarship winners from the 2024-25 school year! First up, we have Mr. Tobias Gillespie, recipient of the Avona E. Greene Scholarship! The Avona E. Greene Scholarship is an annual award given to a HCM major who not only displays exceptional work in the classroom, but also has dedicated their time to serving the University and the community through their involvement and voluntarism while at SIU.

Tobias is a rising junior at SIU with a major in Health Care Management and a double minor in long term care administration and health information and informatics management. Mr. Gillespie, a Chicago, IL native, originally came to SIU as an intended Nursing student, but soon switched to Health Care Management to follow his interests in business and healthcare ethics.

Outside of the classroom, Mr. Gillespie is still a hard worker as he works multiple jobs as an Orientation leader for SIU, a Peer mentor for the College of Liberal Arts, and a server at a local restaurant in the Carbondale community. Tobias is also very involved on campus. He is a general body member of the Black Affairs Council, Black Men Coalition, Student Health Care Management Association, Dawg Pound, and Share the Bread. Tobias is also the Vice President of Africana Theater Lab where he and other students put on a showcase every February during Black History Month.

Tobias graduated in 2023 from The Noble Academy High School and is the son of Cussandra and Tobias Gillespie. He is on track to graduate in December of 2026.

Please join us in congratulating Tobias for this excellent achievement!

05/01/2025

Dr. McPherson’s MHI 583 recently welcomed Kristin Krug from Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) for a lecture on AI-driven Ambient Listening technology, which is transforming the physician-patient experience. This innovative system records clinical exams and automatically inputs relevant information into the EPIC electronic health record system. By reducing the need for manual data entry, physicians are able to spend more time focused on patient care, while also accelerating the documentation and claims process. Currently, 75 physicians at SIH are utilizing this technology, with many more eagerly anticipating its rollout.

12/06/2024

As the semester winds down, we are excited to welcome two new members to our Community Advisory Board!

Dr. Kendall Brune, PhD, CPH, MBA, LNHA, FACHCA

Dr. Brune serves as the CEO of AnthemCare Management, an owner and partner for First Nations Virtual Medical Services, a chairman for the Arise Veteran Foundation, and is on the Board of Directors for the American College of Health Care Administrators. His professional passions are centered around long-term care, veterans, and Indian Health Services. Dr. Brune earned his Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration from The University of Missouri at Columbia, his MBA from William Woods University, a PhD in Hospital Administration from Kennedy Western, and a PhD in Health Service Research from the University of North Texas. Welcome, Dr. Brune!

Bridget Egan, HACP-CMS

Bridget is an accomplished healthcare professional with extensive experience in accreditation and regulatory affairs. Currently serving as an Accreditation Partner for Children's Health System of Texas, she oversees regulatory and survey readiness for two hospitals and multiple ambulatory locations. With six years of experience at The Joint Commission, Bridget has developed a strong foundation for navigating complex regulatory environments. She earned her undergraduate degree in Healthcare Management from Southern Illinois University in 2016 and is currently pursuing her MBA. Welcome, Bridget!


We are very excited to have both of these incredible professionals joining our board to help guide our programs forward!

10/14/2024

Congratulations to MHA student Reece Davis and MHA professor Dr. Tom Shaw on their recently published article on the nursing shortage. Check out the link below.

The nursing shortage in the US and all over the world continues to skyrocket. An untapped channel of recruitment that some are considering is men in the nursing profession. Currently a large dispar...

09/20/2024

As we kick off the fall semester, we are very excited to welcome 2 new board members to the HCM Advisory Board! The Advisory Board assists with program development, student engagement, professional development, and serves as a driving force behind all of our programs’ success! We are very grateful and appreciative of all of our board members and can’t wait to add our new members to the team!

Please help us welcome Dr. Elise Schaller, DNP, MHA, APRN, CPNP-PC, Associate Dean of Academic Programs! Dr. Schaller joins the board from the University of Missouri St Louis’s College of Nursing and brings with her a wealth of information about program development, curriculum, and nurse management!

With expertise in pediatric health and a passion for developing nursing leadership and healthcare systems, Dr. Schaller has been an impactful part of the University of Missouri St. Louis’s (UMSL) College of Nursing faculty since 2018. As an Assistant Teaching Professor, Dr. Schaller taught undergraduate nursing students direct patient care and developed undergraduate- and graduate-level curricula based on her extensive pediatrics experience. While teaching and mentoring primary care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) and doctoral candidates, Dr. Schaller extended her academic responsibilities to direct UMSL’s Doctor of Nursing Practice and Post-Graduate Certificate Programs. Successfully leading the graduate programs led to appointment to Associate Dean of Academic Programs. In this role, Dr. Schaller will oversee undergraduate and graduate programs at the college, leading the development of new curriculum to align to the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. She currently serves as an ex officio member of the Undergraduate and Graduate Committees, the College of Nursing Evaluation Committee, and member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Champion Team.


Guiding Dr. Schaller’s teaching is 12 years of experience in primary care at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, as an RN and a Hospitalist PNP, respectively. At Children’s, Dr. Schaller provided hands-on care in general pediatrics as well as neurosurgery, hematology, psychiatry, gastroenterology, nephrology, and endocrinology. A natural leader and educator, Dr. Schaller also established, led, and evolved onboarding programs for hospitalist PNPs while handling additional management duties and collaborating with multidisciplinary medical teams. She offers UMSL nursing students practical knowledge and a unique perspective on working in inpatient units, magnet hospitals, and private practice settings.

Dr. Schaller received her BSN and MSN from Saint Louis University before earning her Master of Health Administration (MHA) at Webster University. While teaching tomorrow’s nursing leaders, she earned her DNP from UMSL in 2021. She presented on youth athletics response to COVID-19 at the Association of Missouri Nurse Practitioner (AMNP) Conference (2021) and saw her work accepted to the Midwest Nursing Research Society Conference (2022).

Welcome Dr. Schaller!

09/19/2024

The Illinois Health Information Management Association (ILHIMA) is hosting its annual meeting on September 26 and 27th here at SIU in the Student Center! This will be an excellent opportunity to network and learn more about Health Information Management in our local area, as well as nationally/globally. The two-day event will include the annual fall meeting on the 26th and a student symposium on the 27th. Registration for Non-AHIMA Students = $20; if you are an AHIMA member, the event is FREE!



REGISTER HERE BY SEPT 20: https://www.ilhima.org/annualmeeting/attendees/



Day 1 will include presentations on Collaboration & Leadership, Digital Ethics, Clinical Informatics Systems, Data-Driven Decision-Making, Social Determinants of Health, and Medical Records Accuracy to name a few. The meeting will begin at 8am and conclude around 4pm. https://www.ilhima.org/annualmeeting/agenda/



Day 2 will focus on student development in the areas of networking, social media, personality types. https://www.ilhima.org/annualmeeting/student-symposium-agenda/



Both days will provide exceptional learning and engagement opportunities, regardless if you see yourself in administration or informatics! Please see attached flyer for more details.

09/17/2024

We would like to extend a big THANK YOU to Ms. Angie Bailey, System Director for Community Health at SIH for taking the time to speak to our HCM-340 Managerial Epidemiology and Population Health class, taught by HCM instructor Jackie Nash, last Thursday!


Ms. Bailey shared her experiences in Community Health and discussed the importance of the Community Health Needs Assessment. As part of the HCM-340 course, students will be completing a mock Community Health Needs Assessment on a hospital of their choosing. The information shared by Ms. Bailey will help the students strengthen their own CHNA to be presented at the end of the semester! Thank you for your time and expertise, Ms. Bailey!