Key Takeaways
- Administrative fellowships serve as a strategic pipeline for rapid talent acquisition, offering recent graduates accelerated exposure to system operations and executive leadership.
Healthcare administration is a dynamic, ever-evolving field that offers a variety of entry points for early-careerists. One path that has gained popularity in recent years is the administrative fellowship—a structured, project-based learning experience that pairs recent graduates with high-level executives and mentors. Among the institutions known for offering robust healthcare administration fellowships is the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). To learn more about the MUSC Health Administrative Fellowship, we caught up with Moneal Desai, MHA, an alumnus of this prestigious program. Originally hailing from Chicago, Moneal's journey illustrates how to capitalize on healthcare fellowships, build lasting relationships with mentors, and carve out a fulfilling career in healthcare administration.
Moneal's story begins in the vibrant city of Chicago, where he was born and raised. After completing both his undergraduate degree at University of Illinois Chicago he initially planned on attending medical school. However, an experience as a medical scribe changed the course of his career—he realized the clinical track was not what he truly wanted.
With newfound clarity, Moneal pivoted to pursuing his Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA), also from the University of Illinois Chicago. During graduate school, he landed a valuable internship at the American Medical Association (AMA), where he worked in the Improving Health Outcomes department—an experience that would shape his understanding of community health initiatives and chronic disease management.
At the AMA, Moneal got an insider view of the complexities of public health and policy. He worked on projects like the West Side Health Equity Collaborative in Chicago, a community-based initiative focused on reducing disparities in healthcare access in underserved neighborhoods. One of the most rewarding aspects of his internship was engaging with diverse communities across the city and collaborating with other health institutions—sometimes far beyond Illinois.
This role allowed Moneal to understand how systemic initiatives—and eventually, policy changes—can make lasting impacts. It also helped him develop relationships with mentors and colleagues who encouraged him to think bigger, leading him toward the idea of an administrative fellowship in healthcare.
For graduate students on the verge of completing their MHA, the career possibilities are seemingly endless—consulting, direct hospital administration, nonprofit work, and more. But Moneal had three major reasons for choosing a healthcare admin fellowship over other routes:
With a clear vision of what he wanted, Moneal narrowed his fellowship applications to North and South Carolina programs. The MUSC Health Administrative Fellowship emerged as a standout option from the start, though he also considered other renowned programs like the UT Southwestern administrative fellowship and the Texas Children's administrative fellowship.
MUSC's administrative fellowship follows a structured-flexibility model. According to Moneal, the fellowship combines rotational experiences with project-based work. Each fellow is typically assigned a "track" (e.g., Ambulatory Operations, System Operations, etc.), but they also have the freedom to take on additional projects in other areas of interest.
Moreover, MUSC accepts multiple fellows every year, creating a cohort model that fosters camaraderie. "Coming to South Carolina as a newcomer was much easier when I already had a group of peers going through the same process," he recalled.
One of the central tenets of healthcare administration fellowships is mentorship. As Moneal's built-in mentor, the Chief Ambulatory Officer guided him from day one. When he interviewed at MUSC, the conversations felt natural and welcoming. Moneal recognized that this was an environment where leaders truly valued fellows. He also acknowledged the broader institutional culture: because MUSC has hosted fellows for many years, the leadership team understands how to best leverage a fellow's skill set. That trust makes for a smoother, more meaningful learning experience and contributes to healthcare workforce development.
Upon completing his one-year fellowship, Moneal took on an interim manager role overseeing a multispecialty clinic that encompassed both primary care and allergy services. That position eventually evolved into his current role as a Manager of Business Operations—a title that Moneal describes as a "catch-all" for a blend of direct clinic management and continuing project work.
Recent projects have ranged from opening a non-chemo infusion clinic downtown—aimed at easing capacity at the main cancer center—to managing clinic flow and patient panels. The variety, he says, keeps him on his toes and allows him to apply the healthcare analytics and healthcare finance skills he developed during his fellowship.
The administrative fellowship application process is rigorous. From creating spreadsheets to track deadlines to drafting personal statements and securing letters of recommendation, many find it overwhelming. Reflecting on his own experience, Moneal offered a few key pointers:
For anyone reluctant to move across the country, Charleston offers a unique charm that quickly converted Moneal into a proud resident. The temperate climate stands in stark contrast to Chicago winters, and the city's beaches are just a short drive away.
Yet, the local culture has a "work hard, play hard" ethos, reflecting MUSC's environment—laid back outside of work, yet highly focused when it's time for business.
Moneal Desai, MHA's journey from Chicago to Charleston underscores the transformative power of an administrative fellowship in healthcare. At MUSC, he found not only an exceptional learning environment but also a community that supports collaboration, mentorship, and professional growth.
For those contemplating a health administration fellowship—whether at MUSC or elsewhere—Monil's experience offers a roadmap:
In the end, a healthcare administration fellowship is more than just a foot in the door. It's a chance to grow personally and professionally under the guidance of experienced healthcare leaders, build a solid network, and discover the communities you can serve. And if the warmth of Charleston's beaches and Southern hospitality happen to be part of the deal, all the better.
For those interested in pursuing similar opportunities, consider exploring programs recognized by the National Council on Administrative Fellowships and remember that the MUSC Health Administrative Fellowship is just one of many excellent options available for aspiring healthcare leaders.
<p>one of the advices that I got really early on in my career especially as an early careerist was as you progress through your career very early on the years try to pick the boss not the [Music] jobs hi everyone it's rangi sha with the fellowship review through the American Journal of healthcare Str strategy today I am so thrilled to be joined by monil Desai thank you for being on the show happy to be here thank you for having me yeah absolutely so I'm really excited to uh kind of connect and let our listeners know a little bit about you so why don't you give us a brief background on you know who you are where you're from and where you are currently yeah for sure so I am originally from Chicago I was born and raised there I went to University of Illinois at Chicago for both my undergrad and grad school um since then I've taken on a fellowship at MUSC health and have been living in South Carolina ever since that's incredible um Chicago great place to be um and and such a good University as well and and kind of digging deeper into um starting with the internship that you had while you were in Chicago so um of course we talked but tell our listeners you know what it was like interning for the American Medical Association um I know you were improving Health outcomes but say say a little bit more about that yeah for sure so the American Medical Association is a specialty organization um for many of you that are familiar with the health system that's where our CPT codes come from um improving Health outcomes as a department really um entailed working with different organizations for management of chronic diseases prevention of chronic diseases some of the projects that I got to work on were included the Westside Health Equity collaborative so that was focused on bringing um Health Care really to the west side and helping communities that did not necessarily have the same resources as the more um affluent Northern sides doing a community health assessment and and bringing care where people need it most I also got to work on some quality measures which was really cool to see especially because I live and breed them right now um as part of an ACO and finally it was just great to be able to work at an organization where I got to work with different Health entities for example Beth Israel was a health entity that I got to work from um living in Chicago and that's located in Boston so that was super cool as well yeah absolutely it sounds like a a really rewarding experience and I think for listeners who may not be familiar Chicago and Chicago land area is so so diverse so I'm sure it was very important work um and you know kind of taking the next step so while you were in grad school I'm sure um you know again being in an area as Lively and diverse as Chicago you had a lot of options I'm sure you could have gone Consulting you could have gotten a job but of course you went down the fellowship route so tell us a little bit more about what motivated you to pursue an administrative Fellowship um instead of one of the other options for sure so I would really say there were three major reasons so first and foremost um I was pretty brand new to the world of healthcare administration growing up I always thought I want to be a doctor in fact I took the MCAT a couple of times to get the score that I wanted and then decided not to go the med school route um the reason being I hadn't done any real world experience but once I became a scribe realized that life wasn't really for me so started exploring healthcare administration um later on in my life so figured Fellowship would be a great entry Point into launching my career um the second reason being I spoke with some of my cousins who I also discovered had gotten their mhas and they had done fellowships and they spoke really highly of it you getting to work with um high level Executives at a healthcare organization really thrusts you into um the world of healthcare and just navigating and learning from the best of the best so that and then the third one was more so for location purposes so my fiance who was my girlfriend then um was completing her med school rotations in Charlotte so I saw fellowships as a way to kind of get out of my location and kind of relocate um somewhere else um if I applied directly to jobs it's kind of tough um getting a job in a new market not saying it's impossible but as a new grad it is more difficult so um applied really really heavily into North and South Carolina and ended up matching at MUSC so yeah no no that's incredible and you know I think one of the things that you pointed out just now that I want to call attention to for our listeners is it does matter location does matter um so be very intentional with where you're going to apply for fellowships because if you're being close to family or a partner or your friends is important to you that's obviously going to limit your fellowship options a little bit and so building off of that tell us what the application cycle was like for you um you know how did you stay organized while applying to these fellowships in the South um you know what was maybe challenging for you during the interview cycle and and kind of if you could high level give us what that experience was like yeah so looking back at it now um it was a really stressful time just keeping up with all the different deadlines you have your navc applications that all have a common deadline but then you also have the organizations that AR aren't a part of mathcast and you have to really keep on top of those they have different requirements as far as letters of recommendation personal statements um some of them even have essay questions that they have you do on the side so really staying on top of that I used Excel as a big tool to make sure that I had everything um I also really tried to do my work early um to make sure that I made connections with my Prof professors um higher ups at my internship my preceptor at my internship because I knew that I would have to have those letters of recommendation later on oh no yep I was just like agreeing with you because the letters of wreck are so important yeah and honestly I feel like it EAS a lot of nerves talking to some people that had applied to fellowships just through my program earlier on they're the ones that really gave me all of the quote unquote Insider tips into like what I should be doing what organizations I could I should take leadership roles in because at the end of the day it's a way to Market yourself on the resume so yeah yeah no great advice I think uh fellowships really look for a well-rounded candidate so taking advice from your peers relationship building with your professors and joining the right organizations in grad school very very important um and so I I'm sure you had you know several choices even within North and South Carolina when it came to um picking the fellowship organization what do you think through the interview process and kind of at the end what made you pick MUSC and you know even after you're given an offer you do have a choice to say yes or no so what was that kind of motivating factor if anything where you were like yes this is the health system where I feel like I can grow this is the health system where I want to be yeah so honestly this is going to sound super cliche but when you do your interviews especially if they're in person you really find yourself seeing if you're a fit within the health system and if the health system is a fit for you um doesn't necessarily have to be a health system if you get a fellowship with like bizan for example but same rule applies um coming to the ons sits here um just the interview process as a whole felt very fluid I made a lot of connections with um the past fellows here as well um just enjoyed all the conversations I've had when I came onsite it was definitely the most relaxed on-site interview that I attended also got to speak with a bunch of leadership um Folks at the dinner and then just throughout my whole interview process with leadership on the second day so we had the dinner and then the next day you interview with leadership all those were more so conversations with them seeing if I'm a fit for them and then me seeing if there fit for me so really appreciated that process it felt more like a conversation than an interview yeah absolutely I think those are important things I think one of a piece of advice that I've received when I was in the fellowship application process but a piece of advice that I also give fellows now or candidates is yes you are absolutely being interviewed by the organization but you're also interviewing them to a certain extent um so thank you for sharing that and and so now you know really honing in on musc's fellowship and your experience let's talk Logistics right tell our listeners um a little bit of that highlevel overview of the fellowship is it one year is it two-year projects rotations and also do you have a co- fellow or multiple co-fellows or is it just you yeah so to answer the last question first um our fellowship takes multiple fellows in fact we have a cohort model so coming to South Carolina being new here they are kind of like my built-in friends from the very beginning so really help me in navigating my way around having someone with you going through the same process going through the same trial by fire it was definitely a great experience um musc's Fellowship is one year um we like to use the word structured flexibility so it is both rotation and project base the structured flexibility part of it is that we have what you what call track so I was the ambulatory operations fellow where structured flexibility plays in is if I want to take a project um say with supply chain or with system operations or Hospital operations I have flexibility to do that so when you start your fellowship the first four months you're rotating with different leaders building those relationships um a vast majority of your projects will come from your preceptor so mine was the chief ambulatory officer right um but that said if you have interest in other areas that's where you have the flexibility to take on those projects and having built those relationships um you will be trusted with them and also I believe musc's Fellowship is one of the oldest in um existence basically so the good part of that is that everyone within the organization kind of knows what a fellow is so you do have that built-in trust to take on those projects so that was super cool to see as well yeah absolutely um and you know I know you mentioned having a preceptor but one of the other reasons why people are really attracted to fellowships is that like mentorship aspect so could you talk a little bit more about the mentors that you were able to identify and hopefully keep um during and after your fellowship yeah for sure so your preceptor is definitely the built-in mentor and for me personally so one of the advices that I got really early on in my career especially as an early careerist was as you progress through your career very early on the years try to pick the boss not the job so when I did my on-sight I got interviewed by Alice Edwards she's the chief ambulatory officer we had a really nice conversation um really liked what she had to offer um so I kind of picked the boss and she has been a great mentor like even to this day I am now two years removed from my fellow but I know I can text her at any time in the day ask her for advice and we could have a phone call at any time but that's true for most leaders if not all leaders at MUSC just it's just the culture here is to lend a helping hand or lend whatever resources that you have or whatever advice you have whether you were their fellow or not they know who you are so they'll always be willing to give you any sort of advice or career advice that you want that's amazing and I'm so glad that you were able to kind of build that into your experience as a fellow um you know and after the fellowship of course you had an inim manager role and then more most recently you're working in business operations as a manager and so tell our listeners a little bit about that role what do you you know in your most current role what do you do what are some of the projects that you handle yeah so when I was interim I was interim manager over multip Specialty Clinic it has both primary care and Allergy um I have since transitioned full-time to having that role the business operations title is kind of like a catchall term because there's multi there's basically two parts to my current role one is still doing projects for ambulatory leadership um the most recent one that I completed was built the building of a non-mo infusion clinic within one of our um downtown buildings so that is really to offload all of the volumes that are going to our current Cancer Center for Infusion um anything that we can take off of that and put into the non-o infusion Clinic opens up pathway for our chemo patients to get scheduled sooner um so that was really cool to work on seeing it come to fruition um and then the other piece to it is still managing those clinics so um the allergy clinic and um Primary Care Clinic see about um want to say 5,000 patients a year so wow um and that's just the number of patients each each provider has their own panel size and then they come in on rotation so seeing the patients over and over again and building the relationships has definitely been pretty cool um they kind of know who I am my office is like right near the waiting area so they get to see me on their way in and it's been pretty cool so far yeah that's so exciting um and you know I think one of the things that I also want to highlight kind of taking a step back with the fellowship process is the fact that you know it it's very competitive it can be overwhelming at times and so reflecting on your fellowship experience and now of course you successfully completed your fellowship you got a role you stayed within the same Health System what is something about this process that you wish you had done differently or is there even a piece of advice that you hope to give candidates and candidates especially interested in the um in the MUSC Fellowship yeah so it's easy to say now but I would say really try to have fun with the process um I keep I kept hearing this over and over again I didn't truly believe until I went through it but Healthcare is incredibly small like for example you and I have met before and now we're on a podcast together so um I would say try to enjoy the process try to become friends or even stay in contact with the people that you are interviewing with at all these organizations because you never know when you're going to cross paths again um specific to musc's Fellowship when you are going through interviews um because there are more spots we do bring in more um candidates on site so definitely if you do apply to M's fellowship and say you get on site definitely try to enjoy that experience try to make connections with both the leaders at MUSC but also that cohort yeah absolutely great advice um and then finally one of the things we touched on really early in the episode but I love drawing attention to it so to set the stage a little you know you and I talked about this offline but um f fellowships are available all across the country but people you know may not have ever been to the state or city that they're applying to or it might be a very new environment for them so can you please share with our listeners just any fun facts or anything enjoyable that you really want to highlight about living in South Carolina something our listeners may not know um and you know maybe what your favorite part about living down there is yeah so what I've learned about Charleston is the people here are super friendly um the warm weather is always nice I live maybe 30 minutes from the beach now so that is always a great benefit yeah um compared to Chicago the lifestyle here is laidback um so that's always great when you're trying to like relax on the weekends um not everyone's in go go go mode um that said when it comes down to business we do get our work done so um you definitely work hard work hard play hard here so um yeah it's just a great town to be in when you're young so can't complain about it yeah absolutely absolutely and and I'm sure I I've heard this I've never been to South South Carolina but definitely true on the southern hospitality so I can see why you're saying that the people down there are very sweet um I you know I really enjoyed uh talking to you this this evening about the MUSC Fellowship I think like I said to you offline and I'll kind of say again um oftentimes people may not know about certain Fellowship sites or they may hesitate to apply and so a huge part of this show and this episode is to bring to light um Fellowship maybe that are lesser known because when you think about it you know fellows in California or prospective fellows in California might be hesitant to pick up their life and move to South Carolina right and so I I just want to say thank you so much and I and I really appreciated you highlighting the great advice on um establishing mentors as well as you know the things you learned during the fellowship process but I know this episode will be super beneficial to our listeners so thank you of course thank you for having me it was great talking to you</p>
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