Things are going quite well for me. I am living in Chicago (well a suburb called Country Club Hills about 20 miles south of Chicago). I am a managing consultant with a consulting firm called Parkside Associates which does performance measurement and improvement consulting for healthcare organizations. The firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of the largest hospital system in the Chicagoland area, Advocate Health care (thus the e-mail address). The result is small company work environment with big company perks. Incidentally, the founder of our company, Dr. Raymond Carey, co-authored a book that Dr. Morris used in his program evaluation class.
I manage a team of 8 junior consultants and data analysts. I work with hospital executives all over the US, Canada and Australia on everything from survey research methodology and interpretation, strategies on how to improve patient and employee satisfaction, and incentive plan design. While I work a lot of long hours, I really enjoy what I do. The passion for my work diminished my desire to purse a doctorate, but I expect to get into Northwestern's executive training program or into their MBA program in the next year or two. My problem is finding the time to fit it all in.
It's good to hear from alumni, students, and faculty at MSU. Feel free to e-mail me.
Monica Johnson,
MPPA alumnus