Health Care UST MBA
Meet Our Experts
A key element of the Health Care UST MBA program’s success is the blend of theory and practical application delivered by our outstanding faculty, fellows and center directors.
Each faculty member is rooted in both academic discipline and actual management experience. Furthermore, faculty have chosen St. Thomas for its commitment to the personal side of a business education, acting as teacher, mentor and career coach. They make themselves available to all our students, even if they have not yet had them in class.
The health care faculty, fellows and center directors are also excellent resources in networking, research and professional development. Additional St. Thomas faculty members doing research in health care can be found as "contributors" on the Center for Health and Medical Affairs website and can serve as valuable student resources.
We are pleased to list our current program faculty here, along with short bios.
Directors
Jack Militello, Ph.D.
is the program director of the Health Care UST MBA and Executive UST MBA programs and a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas. He has 25 years of experience in teaching, research and consulting on issues related to strategic planning and executive leadership. He currently sits on the boards of directors of four firms. His consulting has centered on strategic planning, change management, leadership development and strategic alignment. He has worked with both large and small organizations from the business, nonprofit and government sectors. His clients have included IBM, ReMax, Du Pont, The National Catholic Education Association, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Minnesota State Bar Association, City of Philadelphia, State of Tennessee and the United States Department of Justice.
Daniel McLaughlin, M.H.A.
is the director of the Center for Health and Medical Affairs at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to this position he was program director for the Center for Business Excellence and the Executive Director of the National Institute of Health Policy at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to his work at St. Thomas, he held multiple leadership positions within the Hennepin County health care system. From 1984 to 1992, Mr. McLaughlin was the administrator and CEO of Hennepin County Medical Center. From 1992 through 1999, he was the director of Health Policy for Hennepin County.
Fellows
David Durenberger, J.D.
is the senior health policy fellow at the University of St. Thomas. He served as a senior United States Senator for Minnesota from 1978-1995. During his time in office, he served on numerous key Senate committees including 16 years on the Finance Committee with responsibility for all Medicare, Medicaid and tax policy. He currently influences national policy as chair of the National Institute for Health Policy (NIHP) at the Opus College of Business and as a member of the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid and the Uninsured and the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA). He is a former member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC).
Frederick (Fritz) J. Wenzel, M.B.A., FACMPE
is an executive fellow at the University of St. Thomas. He was executive director of the Marshfield Clinic Medical Research Foundation for 16 years, executive director of the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI, for 17 years and executive vice president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association in Englewood, CO, for three years. He provides consulting to medical groups and hospital systems and has authored a number of papers and two books on medical and leadership topics.
John Reiling, Ph.D.
is an executive fellow at the University of St. Thomas and the president of Safe by Design. He is the former president and CEO of SynergyHealth, Inc., and St. Joseph’s Community Hospital in West Bend, WI, an 82-bed hospital that was rebuilt utilizing patient safety, quality and safe design principles. Dr. Reiling has a 30-year career in health care administration. He has been recognized as one of the “50 Health Care Leaders for the 21st Century” by the American Hospital Association. He consults with hospitals and health systems across the country regarding facility and patient care designs that emphasize safety, error reduction and quality.
Faculty
Avinash Malshe, Ph.D.
is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of St Thomas. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previous experience includes working as a brand manager with Pfizer Inc. in their South Asia operations. His work is published in journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. Dr. Malshe has trained or consulted with business executives in both for profit and non-profit sectors.
David Vang, Ph.D.
is the chair of the Finance Department at the University of St. Thomas. He received his B.A. in economics and political science at St. Cloud State University and his Ph.D. in economics at Iowa State University. His research specialties are in the areas of business valuation, derivatives, entrepreneurship, publicly financed projects and the U.S. economy.
Jason Pattit, Ph.D.
is an assistant professor of management at the University of St. Thomas. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration (focusing on strategic management) and MBA from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester. Prior to joining academia, he worked in R&D in both engineering and managerial roles for BMC Industries, Inc. The majority of his empirical work focuses on the design and development of R&D alliance contracts in the medical device industry. His work is published in journals such as Research Policy, the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, R& D Management and the Journal of Business Research.
Joseph White, CPA, MBA
is a principal for LarsonAllen, LLP and specializes in serving physician groups and health care systems. He has more than 20 years of experience in consulting, tax and assurance services in the health care field. He is a licensed CPA and is a member of Medical Group Management Association, Minnesota Medical Group Management Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Health Care Financial Management Association.
Katherina Glac, Ph.D.
is an assistant professor of ethics and business law at the University of St. Thomas. She received her Ph.D. in business ethics and law from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. and M.B.A. from Friedrich Alexander University in Germany. Before coming to St. Thomas, Dr. Glac taught ethics and professional responsibility in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and business ethics at the Wharton School. Dr. Glac’s research is focused on the decision-making process behind socially responsible investing and the implications of investor preferences on managerial responsibility. Her research is published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Management International Review and other international publications.
Mark Fisher, FACMPE
is a principle in Health Care Partners (HCP) consulting, currently acting as CEO of Associated Eye Care. He has also served as the senior vice president for Shared Services at the University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP); the interim president and CEO for Aspen Medical Group; the CEO for Minnesota Healthcare Network and Triium LLC; the executive administrator of the Stillwater Medical Group; CAO of Park Nicollet Medical Center; the executive vice president of Central Ohio Medical Group, a multi-specialty medical group in Columbus, Ohio; and was the business manager for the Pediatric Department at the University of Minnesota. Fisher is a past president of the Minnesota Medical Group Management Association and is a fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives.
Michael Sheppeck, Ph.D.
is an associate professor of management practicing in the areas of human resource management strategy, organization development, and training and development. Dr. Sheppeck has an M.A. in general psychology and statistics from Western Washington University and a Ph.D. in industrial/ organizational psychology from the University of South Florida. He has worked in various human resources capacities with Honeywell Inc., Assessment Designs Inc. and the National Bank of Detroit. He is a regular presenter at conferences such as the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, American Society for Business and Behavioral Sciences and the Minnesota Medical Group Management Association. He is a member of the Society for Industrial/ Organizational Psychology, the American Psychological Society, the Society for Human Resource Management and the Academy of Management.
Pat Hedberg, Ph.D.
is the chair of the Management Department at the University of St. Thomas. She has a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Minnesota. Her fields of study are personal and professional development, leadership, business ethics, and family business. Hedberg partners with Mick Sheppeck to administer and support the leadership and critical thinking assessment process that forms the basis for each Health Care UST MBA students' personalized development plan. She is a member of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society.
Ronald Menaker, Ed.D., FACMPE, M.B.A., CPA
is the administrator for cardiovascular services at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, Menaker was the executive vice president of Prevea Health Services in Green Bay, WI, and an assistant director of patient care at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI. He has been actively involved in MGMA and ACMPE, serving on both boards of directors, and is past chair of The American College of Medical Practice Executives (ACMPE).
Ryan Johnson, J.D.
is an attorney with Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. His experience includes representing medical device and life science companies, health information technology companies, health care providers and other businesses in a variety of corporate and regulatory matters; structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions, financing, joint ventures and strategic alliances; and advising corporate boards on a variety of corporate governance matters. Johnson is a member of the firm’s ethics and risk management committee.
Sanjeev Bordoloi, Ph.D.
is an associate professor of operations management at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to UST, he taught at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and College of William & Mary. He has published in several journals, including Health Services Management Research and Health Care Management Review. His research interests include service operations (health care, call centers, airlines and hospitality management), process analysis and design, and project management. He has worked full time in the industry for seven years at the executive level, mostly in project management and technology management. He has consulted for several firms, including Sentara Healthcare, Archer Daniels Midland, Northwestern University medical unit and Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
Thomas Ressler, Ph.D.
is a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas, specializing in the application of statistics and mathematics for management decision making. He has degrees in mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and operations research from the University of Minnesota. He brings 25-plus years of teaching experience to the program and has been named Outstanding Professor in the Opus College of Business. Formerly an engineer, he has been an advisor to students in the computer, electronics and business fields and currently serves as the academic adviser to the Physician Leadership College executive education program within the Opus College of Business.
