Off to a Healthy Start
On Christmas Day 2013, Samantha Levine-Neudel, MBA ’23 raced down the streets of Boston to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her husband had gone into acute liver failure. An autoimmune disease that had lain dormant in his body since birth suddenly woke up, threatening to steal the life of the 34-year-old new dad.
By the time Josh Neudel was diagnosed, his liver was too far gone. He joined a list of over 10,000 candidates waiting for a transplant — and miraculously made it to the top. A week later, he underwent a successful surgery. Today, he works full time and coaches his son’s soccer and basketball teams.
“He made it,” Levine-Neudel says. “And I knew from that moment I wanted to be a part of something meaningful like that.”
She went on to join the renowned teaching hospital as an associate director of philanthropy marketing and perfected her storytelling skills on the job.
“But I always knew there was something out there that could connect my writing and health care dots behind the scenes,” says Levine-Neudel, who holds two degrees in political science. “I just didn’t know what it was, until Bentley.”
Right Program, Right Time
In 2020, the university collaborated with Beth Israel (BIDMC) to bring an MBA program with a health care focus (think courses like Microeconomic Foundations of Health Care) to its leaders. Levine-Neudel was a member of the first cohort for the two-year program, along with 30 fellow staffers spanning administration, medicine and research.
That group included Andi Hernandez, MBA ’23. With a background in biology and genetics, and almost 20 years in research operations at BIDMC, Hernandez found her forte on the administrative side of science. The need for an MBA “to help me fill in the blanks” was clear, she says, but there were obstacles: time, money, family.
“Then it all kind of magically came together. BIDMC offered this program just as I was applying for the vice president of research operations role.” She got the job.
The pilot cohort’s success continues to ripple. The program is now available to all employees of the Beth Israel Lahey Health system, including staff members from 12 other hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. A second group is mid-degree, a third cohort will start in September, and Strategic Health Care Management is now a concentration option for all Bentley MBA students.
“Our partnership with Bentley has been a great opportunity to support our leaders and emerging leaders to get an MBA from a world-class program,” says Joanne Pokaski, Beth Israel Lahey Health’s Assistant Vice President for Workforce Planning and Development. “And our employees have gained important personal and professional relationships from the program’s cohort model.”
Says Professor of Management Iris Berdrow, Bentley’s MBA director: “We are not the only business school in New England that offers a health care program. But, to my knowledge, we are the only one that brings in natural and applied sciences courses.”
In the big business of good health, she adds, “Bentley is making big strides.”