Key Takeaways
- Design administrative fellowships with project-based structures to allow emerging leaders to see strategic initiatives through from conception to completion.
For many aspiring healthcare leaders, landing a hospital administrative fellowship can be a pivotal step in shaping their career trajectory. The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy recently featured an illuminating conversation between host Vrushangi Shah, MHA and guest Alisa Raju, MHA, a Luminis Health fellowship alum, who delved into her educational journey, healthcare administration fellowship experiences, and current role as a Project manager at Northwell Health. Alisa's story highlights the perseverance, adaptability, and passion required to thrive in healthcare management. Below are the key insights from her remarkable path.
Alisa's journey into healthcare administration was far from linear. During her undergraduate years at the University at Albany, she initially pursued a career as a physician assistant. Yet, as she advanced through her classes, she realized direct patient care was not exactly her calling. "I still wanted to help patients," she says, "but I had more of a mindset for leadership and business."
A timely suggestion from her sister introduced her to the realm of healthcare administration—an avenue that brought together her interests in business, leadership, and healthcare. Being a psychology major with minors in biology and business turned out to be fortuitous: "I was very confused," Alisa recalls with a laugh, "but it allowed me to be a well-rounded student. I could switch majors late and still graduate on time."
Seeking deeper insight into the administrative side of healthcare, she decided to pursue a Master of Health Administration (MHA) at Stony Brook University. There, she learned about critical topics such as the social determinants of health and community health—areas she personally resonated with, having seen family and friends encounter barriers to accessing quality healthcare.
Armed with her newfound direction, Alisa began looking for opportunities to gain hands-on experience. She accepted an entry-level job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a revered cancer center where she served as a care coordinator.
Initially, she worked at the front desk, handling patient registration and scheduling. Within six months, Alisa had been promoted to Care Coordinator II, where she managed clinic operations for a specific provider. "It gave me a lot of exposure to healthcare operations—everything from scheduling to working side by side with nurses and doctors," Alisa notes. This role laid a solid foundation, helping her understand the nuances of hospital workflows and patient management. It was also the perfect springboard for her future admin fellowship applications.
Securing a healthcare administrative fellowship can be surprisingly challenging, something Alisa learned firsthand. During her MHA program, she frequently asked healthcare leaders, "How did you get to where you are?" Many attributed their success to completing a post-graduate fellowship. Intrigued, Alisa applied to around ten healthcare administration fellowships in her first attempt—all in New York State.
She admits: "I love New York, and I wanted to stay close to home. I didn't realize how competitive these fellowships were." Despite a few first-round interviews, she didn't land a fellowship in her first cycle. While a setback for some might lead them to abandon the fellowship route, Alisa was determined to try again. "If doctors can apply for residencies multiple times, why can't I apply for an admin fellowship a second time?" she remembers thinking.
Over the next year, Alisa committed herself to becoming a more competitive candidate for healthcare admin fellowships. She took a full-time position at MSK, participated in an internship through her grad program, joined leadership boards at Stony Brook, and even worked as a wedding planner/event coordinator on the side—a role that, unbeknownst to her, translated into valuable leadership and organizational skills.
When she reapplied, she was far better prepared: "I focused on leveraging every transferable skill I had—from working in a hospital to planning events." This time, she secured not one but two offers. Ultimately, she chose the administrative fellowship program at Luminis Health in Annapolis, Maryland, a move that would prove transformative both professionally and personally.
The Luminis Health Fellowship was one year long and project-based, a structure Alisa found appealing. While some healthcare administration fellowships rotate participants through different departments, Luminis encouraged fellows to embed themselves in projects that could span several months. "Rotations can be great," Alisa notes, "but sometimes you don't get to see the full lifecycle of an initiative if you're only there for a few months. At Luminis, one of my projects lasted about six months, and I was able to see it through from beginning to end."
Working at a mid-sized health system also meant intimate access to executives. Alisa's fellowship director was the CEO of the hospital system, Victoria "Tori" Bayless, and her preceptor was a hospital president. She attended weekly leadership meetings, engaged with directors of various departments, and learned how decisions were made at the highest level. "They let us do whatever we wanted, in the best sense," she recalls. "We could take on as many projects as we could handle, which meant a wealth of learning opportunities in areas like finance, human resources, and strategic planning."
When reflecting on her mentorship, Alisa cannot emphasize enough how important her leadership team was. Beyond official mentors like the CEO and hospital president, she had an "unofficial mentor" in the hospital COO. Their open-door policies and genuine willingness to guide and educate her were invaluable. "They had a wealth of knowledge and had been through so much themselves. They always seemed to have just the right answer," she says.
One of Alisa's biggest lessons? Be open to relocating if a promising opportunity arises. For her, leaving New York—a place she had always called home—was daunting. Yet, this leap of faith exposed her to a new health system culture, expanded her professional network, and forged her independence.
"I had to balance my desire to grow professionally with having a life outside of work," she explains. Alisa advises prospective fellows to be intentional about where they apply, acknowledging that they will spend a great deal of time in the fellowship but also want to be in a city or region that suits their lifestyle. "Work-life balance matters," she says. "You want to enjoy the community where you live and potentially contribute to community health initiatives."
After an enriching year in Maryland, Alisa was ready to come back to New York. She credits her fellowship mentors for supporting this transition, noting how they reached out to their connections to help her secure a new role.
Today, Alisa is a Project Manager at Northwell Health Cohen Children's Medical Center, a prestigious children's hospital on Long Island. She divides her time between operational tasks—like budgeting, physician compensation, and contract work—and leading specific initiatives aimed at improving patient care. One notable project she's helping drive is a same-day sick initiative, designed to reduce emergency department (ED) congestion by offering timely, same-day appointments at primary care practices for sick children. "We're trying to get patients the care they need without overcrowding the ED," Alisa explains. "It's really about more efficient resource allocation and better patient access, which ties into population health management."
In her role, Alisa also engages with healthcare technology and healthcare innovation, constantly looking for ways to improve clinical operations and patient care services through data-driven insights and healthcare analytics.
Reflecting on her experiences, Alisa offers several key pieces of advice for those considering a health administration fellowship:
From her undergraduate switch to healthcare administration, to her MHA fellowship at Luminis Health, and now in her project management role at Northwell Health, Alisa Raju embodies the resilience and adaptability it takes to excel in healthcare leadership. Her story underscores the power of stepping outside one's comfort zone and the importance of finding mentorship in every phase of your career journey.
For early-careerists considering a healthcare administrative fellowship, Alisa's experiences demonstrate that while the process is competitive, it is also immensely rewarding. By cultivating meaningful relationships, embracing new environments, and showcasing the full breadth of their skills and passions, prospective fellows can open doors to life-changing opportunities—and ultimately help shape the future of healthcare for the better.
Whether you're interested in hospital management, organizational leadership, or driving healthcare policy changes, an administrative fellowship program can provide the foundation for a successful career in healthcare administration. As Alisa's journey shows, the path may not always be straightforward, but with determination and the right opportunities, it can lead to a fulfilling career in shaping the future of healthcare delivery and innovation.
<p>hi everyone it's pangi Shaw with the fellowship review through the American Journal of healthcare strategy today I am thrilled to be joined by Alyssa Raju mha thank you for uh joining me on the podcast thank you for having me I'm looking forward to [Music] this yeah absolutely so as you know the um real goal of this podcast is to highlight fellows from across the country and I am based off the West Coast so I'm super excited to have someone all the way from the east coast today um so just to kick it off can you tell me about your educational journey and kind of where you did your undergrad what your degree was in and also you know where you got your masters from yeah sure so I actually got my bachelor's from um the University of Albany so the Sunni school I went originally at to pursue a career as a physician assistant and during uh that I think it was like three years I switched like my junior year I realized like I wasn't uh passionate about patient care as much as I thought I was I still wanted to help patients but I had more of a mindset for leadership and business and my sister actually told me about healthcare administration and um it's kind of like a combination of both so I wanted to pursue that and I switched like my junior year luckily um my major was in Psychology and I was a minor in business and biology I was very confused but um it allowed me to be like a well-rounded student and also have a flexible degree so I was able to switch my junior year and also still graduate on time and while looking for programs I thought sonberg was a great program it was a little closer to home and it was a sun school as well so I did my mha there as a two-year program and during that time I learned more about healthcare administration and also about the social terms of health which I really resonated with that something also my family dealt with growing up which is why I wanted to pursue healthcare administration to be a healthcare leader that helps break barriers to care especially for like immigrant families and just communities that are less you know have less resources than most yeah absolutely and what an incredible journey and to really highlight the social determinance of health and you know the funny thing is I've had many guests and of the podcast has had many guests on and so many of us discovered Healthcare Management after trying to go down a different route and often times it is a health care route right like I know many people who were going to be doct who wanted to be doctors or you know Pas or even physical therapists and in going to classes they realized that maybe this wasn't the right Avenue and that's how they discovered Health Management so I appreciate you sharing that that you know that this wasn't like your first choice you had the ability to kind of figure out your major before figur uh before ending up in an mha program so that's great um and you know I saw so you worked at one of in my opinion such an incredible organization pretty early on in your career I you know um we spoke about this you worked at Memorial slone ketering and so tell us a little bit about um tell us a little bit about that what was that experience like what was your role you know what were some of the initiatives or projects that you took part in yes sure so at memor FM King I worked as a care coordinator and it was my first full-time job so I thought it was a great organization to get my feet like wet but also just get the experience I needed at an entry level so I worked there originally as a care coordinator one so it's basically just like front desk you know check-in patient registration scheduling all that and then within six months that's a great thing about like memorial stone cering there's so much like professional growth within six months I got promoted to a care coordinator too and they assigned us to our own provider and we ran their clinic and it was just a great way to you know get to know more about the patients but also the operations behind you know running a clinic like everything that goes into scheduling the nurse that you work with the doctor that you work with learning about provider schedules and it gave me a lot of um exposure to the field um especially you know at an entry level um and it helped me get the experience that I needed um for my fellowship actually yeah and I'm sure it was an incredible time um I work in cancer services and we are are always looking to best practices and so many of them come from slone kering so I'm so um excited that you were able to get this experience so early on um and so you know jumping into the topic of our fellowship tell me about your um your fellowship and tell our listeners is was it one well actually let's start with you know why why did you want to do a fellowship um what Drew you to that process as opposed to just continuing on in your career yeah sure so I remember during my masters we did like mock interviews and I always ask people about like their Healthcare Journey because you know a lot of fields or like careers it's kind of like one step after the other but healthcare administration you can go so many routes so I always ask people like how they got to where they are they were because um I'm actually the first person in my family to go to like a non like clinical role or like just like a normal grad school rather than like you know nursing school or med school so I was really just navigating this on my own and it's really hard when like no one else in your family or like is doing it or you don't have a lot of resources so I remember like asking everyone how they got to where they were and this one person I met she actually said she did administrative fellowship and I was like oh like what is that sounds so cool and she just explained how it's like kind of like a training but also you're learning you're working and it's like a stepping stone into Healthcare like management and a lot of people described it as like a couple of years of experience in one and I was like oh that's so great especially because after after grad school I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go or what I like what I would do and I thought a fellowship would be a great way to continue to learn about what healthcare administration has to offer um but also like learn what interests me you know so I decided to pursue a fellowship so I actually in all transparency I applied twice so the first time around I applied and I only applied to places in New York because I love New York and I love being home just you know being close to everyone I was like brought up here um so I did want to stay close to home but I didn't realize how competitive um fellowships were especially like you know New York is a great place to list so everybody wanted to come to New York and I didn't realize how popular it was because I just learned about administrative fellowships I didn't know everyone knew about them um the first year I applied to like around 10 um fellowships and all New York I got um a couple of interviews a couple of um actually no second round interviews just a couple of first round interviews and then I learned that I didn't get the fellowship and originally I kind of just like you know like accepted it and I was like okay now I'll just go like the traditional rout but I remember listening to actually another healthc care podcast and they were just talking about how great uh Health like their administrative Fellowship was and it made me regret not being able to have that opportunity so I remember thinking to myself you know if doctors can apply for residencies like again like why can't I apply for a fellowship again so I remember I spent that whole year just making making myself more competitive uh that's why I went towards like a full-time job in Memorial slone kering and then I also did an internship as part of my grad school program I was on an eboard for like the future Healthcare leaders of Stonybrook and then I also became like a wedding planner and event coordinator so I do that on the side yeah so with everything that I could just to make myself more compatible and like you know the wedding stuff it was actually like so many transferable skills from Healthcare Management and like that's what my one piece of advice like being able to take what you love but also using transferable skills like there's so many other fields out there that have transferable skills so I will say for um applicants to try to leverage that and use that within their interviews because originally I was like oh like no one cares about that but then you know it's a lot of transferable skills so I used that year um to make myself more competitive and then I spent the whole summer just really honing down on like reaching out to my resources um everyone that I knew that was a fellow even you know just uh random leaders that I knew to help myself get all the knowledge and uh like resources that I needed I really honed in on my like personal statement I interviewed a lot of like current fellows and like just got all the information I needed to be uh more competitive um luckily I got first round interviews and then I got a couple second round interviews and I actually got like two offers so I ended up going with luminous Health which was my last my last Fellowship yeah how incredible okay first of all totally understand why you'd want to live in New York I've been to New York countless times and I feel like when you're born or raised there there is that you know like a true New Yorker wants to always go back to their roots and so I totally understand that um and how cool that you have a wedding planning business um definitely so many trans verbal skills in that I totally see it and and it's so funny I always tell my family if I wasn't in Health Management I think I would be a wedding planner so I completely understand where you're coming from how cool um but also I want to commend you for the transparency and the honesty and and being vulnerable with our listeners I think people don't actually realize how competitive the fellowship process is and I honestly want to give you kudos for trying again because I think a lot of people would you know assume that oh I didn't get it this time I'm just going to move on with my life and go down another path and so I I'm so um it's so incredible your story and and I loved hearing that you tried again and and you secured a fellowship and so kind of talk talk about the fellowship with me one is it one year is it twoyear is it Project based rotation based um what should our listeners know if they're interested in your organization where is it located yeah sure so luminous held is it's actually a new a newer system they were originally anondo Medical Center and they uh acquired a community hospital and became luminous Health it's located in a Apolis Maryland and the fellowship it was great honestly like I loved it so much it was more of a middle-size organization and that's one thing that I will say to a lot of listeners because even my first year around I wanted the big hospital names but I feel like when you go into a middle-size organization you get more attention and focus on you and exposure to more things so my like program director was a CEO of the hospital system and then I also had a preceptor who was president of one of the hospitals so it was so much exposure to like High Lev leadership and I worked with both of their teams so we worked in with executive leadership we ran their like weekly meetings all the leadership like monthly meetings but also at the department level we were working with all the directors of the departments on different projects so our rot our um Fellowship was Project based which I thought was good and it was one year I think two years would have been a lot but I like one year was like a good amount of time um but it was Project based and I liked it because I know for rotations like I talked a lot of my like colleagues and other like past fellows and you know you're in a rotation for a couple of months but you don't get to see a lot of your projects through you know you get like three months in that project and sometimes you want like a longer project and being Project based allowed me to work on a long project like one of my projects was like six months long and I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity a rotational based Fellowship um but it was just great exposure to like highle leadership it had a lot of mentorship and they let us do whatever we want like we got out what we put in and you know I moved out of state for the first time in my life and I moved there just for the fellowship so I wanted to get the most out of it so I you know dedicated a lot of my time to that fellowship and in return I got so many skills that I'm able to use in my current role but yeah I think that gave a good rundown of the fellowship oh absolutely yes and and you read my mind that was going to be my next question um you know if you had a co- fellow so now that I know that you had one um was there opportunity for you and your co- fellow to do joint projects together or was it mostly that you both kind of did your own thing so I would say system level we both worked together but then at the hospital level we both had our own hospitals so I worked at we worked on projects at like the hospital level some projects I did at his Hospital like he would help out with mine um I would say the ones that we worked on together were more like system for example like doing the hospitals or the system Community benefit report like we worked on that together so at the system level we did work on project together but Hospital level we worked they're like smaller and just for our hospital so we' work on those separately yeah awesome that's awesome and I know you touched on this a little bit in the previous question but I think a huge reason why fellows actually do of the fellowship process is for the access for the exposure for the mentorship and I know you mentioned that you know you had access to the executives and the CEO but can you talk a little bit more about what mentorship was like um you know uh with the various leaders at the hospital and do you feel like you made lifelong mentorship connections as well I would say it definitely did so our program director she was the CEO and you know I feel like when you're in a when you're a fellow I feel like you don't feel as important as like the leaders that you work with but we met with her on a weekly basis and we helped her so much we were her right-hand person whatever we needed like she was always there for us and she was very like chill she was relaxed so it was just like easy talking to her so and you know even when I was like looking for a job usually like fellowships want you to stay within that um hospital system but my like my program director went above and beyond to get me like a job in New York and like you know reached out to all her like connections and I just like thought it was like so like considerate of her even though I wasn't staying with that system and then my preceptor was a president of one of the hospitals and I sat like right outside her office and she was so accessible and even like when I was looking at jobs um going through interviews having like a rough time because the job search is rough even when I was going through that it was just great she had an open door policy being able to walk in and just be like hey like I have this issue and like they they have so much like they have a wealth of knowledge and like they've been through a lot so they just always have the right answer so it's great having those two resources and then I had like unofficial Mentor which was the CEO of the hospital and she was just great as well like I feel like I had a more like relaxed relationship with her like because she was like my unofficial Mentor she still gave me like a majority of my project so it's nice having that connection with her and again like going through everything I did with the job search all three of them were a great resource so definitely mentorship there's um a lot there and then I became close with all the directors as well in my hospital I think everyone just loves the fellows so then you know they all were like so nice and welcoming and just wanted us to learn so I love that yeah how incredible and I heard you say she a lot of times so it's so great to see female um you know leadership in hospital settings as well so I'm so happy that you got that experience and so in listening to you answer that last question it seems like you did change your organization so tell me more about where you are now what your role is and you know maybe a project or something you want to highlight that you get to be a part of in your career role yeah sure so I'm currently a project manager at northwell Health their children's hospital so it's called Cohen's children's hospital and I would say my role is like there's like three parts to it so like there's like an operational portion of it so working operational projects with our assistant vice president and then there's a financial aspect of it as well so helping all the aps as well as my manager who's a VP of like the ambulatory region her with like the budget and then also I've been getting more into like physician comp and contracts and credentialing so I started this role in July so I'm still like getting um my feet wet and learning everything I would say one of the initiatives we're working on right now is like a same day stick initiative so a lot of children you know it's flu season covid all all the above everything's going around so we really want you know keep Patients Out of the Ed but also provide them the care that they need because you know when your kid is sick that day your immediate response is to bring them to an urgent care or the emergency room but then that um does like take up a lot of like space and time um that isn't really necessary because that could be treated at one of the like General practices or primary care so this initiative is to just get more patients scheduled like the same day that they are sick so the same day sick um and it just helps us get patients um like more access to care we find a practice that's closest to them because our like region our ambulatory practices are all across like like Long Island uh and queens we've been going to the city um so it's just like getting them an appointment as soon as POS possible with a provider that's closest to them so it helps keep a lot of patients out of the Ed uh lower our Ed volume um patient weight times and just get those kids the care that they need at that time so that's one of the projects we're working on how cool is that and you know I think lowering Ed burden is 100% um a really real issue across Health Systems across the country so I completely understand why there would be an initiative to you know um get people the access and the care that they need but then also making sure the health system is able to handle the you know the the volume of people that do come to the Ed so thank you for sharing that um and you know I think one of the big questions that I like to ask all my guests and I'll ask you as well um you highlighted this the fellowship application process and being an early careerist can be daunting um it can be a challenging process to go through so if you were giving a fellow in advice an applicant in advice as they go through you know recruitment season interview season has started what is one thing you want them to remember as they go through this process I would definitely say like stepping out of your comfort zone and I think I highlighted it before like if I didn't leave New York I wouldn't have gotten the experience that I needed but that was such a big step for me because I've lived here like my entire life and moving to another state where you know absolutely nobody like no family no friends it was such a I would say a rewarding experience but also like daunting at first but it made me like step out of my comfort zone and like learned so many personal skills like I grew on a professional level but also personal level and to be honest I don't think I would have gotten that experience here because a lot of the organizations that are in New York are already like well-developed and like big systems and I don't think I would have gotten that like here so I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and like left but also I knew myself enough to not take a fellowship just anywhere like if I'm being honest like I can't like I couldn't be in the middle west like like I need to be like near City I did get an offer and Pennsylvania but it was like I I remember like I do value like learning and my fellowship experience but also I wanted to have a life out of fellowship and you know I think work life balance is something that fellow should prioritize so an knowing yourself enough to pick a fellowship at a location um that you can see a life outside of work you know that would be a big one I will say to be very vulnerable in your personal statement because you know we actually had to give we went through our fellowship applications for the next fellows that like took our place and you know they go through like over hundreds of applications so to stick out you just really want to be true to yourself a vulnerable even like you know they want to know you outside of work so I mentioned like the wedding planning and event coordinating at first I was like oh they don't want to know that so I only talked about work but then I got some like feedback from somebody that interviewed me and when I told them I was like you know in the like wedding industry they're like oh like why didn't you mention that that's so cool like we actually want to know that you're a person outside of work yeah people that interview they're people too so like you know just being like you don't have to be as nervous that you know it obviously it's a very nerve-racking experience like yourself being comfortable and just like really knowing who you are I would say that yeah absolutely what incredible advice and you know I agree with all of it um knowing your why is so so important um and highlighting yourself outside of just your professional setting is so important um one thing I I will kind of echo that you already said and I I also agree and always say this to any candidate is you know you will be at work for a majority of the week absolutely but you will also leave work and you'll make friends and do community things within the city or town that you live in so it's so important that you like the city or town where your fellowship is located so thank you for highlighting that um and you know with that it has been such a great conversation with you I just want to thank you for taking the time I know it's late um on the East Coast so I just appreciate you taking the time tonight to speak with us and I know this episode will bring um you know our our listeners will be able to take a lot of good advice and hopefully even apply to um your organizations yeah I hope so too thank you so much for this opportunity it's been great and also doing this podcast like I wish I had more of this when I was applying I don't think I had a lot of resources cuz my like uh grad school didn't really offer that so it's nice having podcasts like these or just resources to learn more about fellowships but thank you again it has been truly a pleasure yeah absolutely</p>
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