“During Management Grand Rounds, we met senior executives and some younger Temple alumni who were waiting to talk to us and handing us business cards,” says Ethan Kannel, MBA ’20. “We learned about what they do, their company and probably most interestingly, their career paths often starting with Temple and the Fox School of Business. They told us about how they got to where they are and what changed their path along the way.”
Today, Kannel is the director of operations at Penn’s Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. He started his career in healthcare management with an MBA in Health Sector Management the Fox School. As part of that academic program, Ethan took part in Management Grand Rounds (MGR). During MGRs, graduate students in healthcare management observe and interact with both healthcare administrators and clinicians in the healthcare environment.
Fox Healthcare practicum experiences, including the MGR, Executive Shadowing, and Internships, expose students to networking, mentoring, practice, and leadership opportunities, and the time and opportunity to apply academic expertise and learn about healthcare issues.
“A lot of people pursue an MBA to change industries. I remember thinking it was this big decision that I picked healthcare. But healthcare is the most diverse and complex industry out there. There are so many places you can take your career,” says Kannel. “What the MGR did for us was give exposure to the variety you can do in healthcare. It helps to make the decision about where to work in healthcare less theoretical and more concrete.”
Following the MGR, students engage in an executive shadowing experience and a summer internship.
“One example of how this program works so seamlessly was that we had an MGR visit at Penn Medicine where Kevin Mahoney, who was executive vice president at the time and is now CEO, gave a presentation on the future of healthcare,” says Kannel. “On the visit, I could envision myself working at Penn Medicine. It led down a pathway sort of orchestrated by Temple by design–I asked Kevin if I could shadow him during winter break, which he graciously allowed me to do.
Kannel attended a meeting with Mahoney about using real-time location services in ambulatory clinics to track and improve patient flow and throughput. He reached out to someone on the team to express interest in the project and landed an internship working on ambulatory access and operations.
“So, the MGR led perfectly into winter shadowing, which led to a summer internship—and the story continues from there,” he says.
During his internship, Kannel sat next to a group of administrative fellows. Various healthcare systems offer administrative fellowships for MBA students with healthcare management concentrations. Participants work through a two-year leadership development program to help graduates grow their careers in hospital administration.
“One of the people I sat next to had previously been an intern in a similar role as I had, and she was also a Temple alumna, so it was very easy to envision myself in that role,” he says. “Shortly after my internship, I applied for the Penn Medicine Administrative Fellowship and was accepted.”
The fellowship allowed Kannel to explore facets of the industry across the hospital system. In his second year, he helped write the job description for the director of operations for the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at Penn Medicine. Kannel then acted as interim manager for a year, before being offered the position full-time.
Kannel praises the Fox MBA program for helping him develop the soft skills he needed to network and gain access to the various opportunities he had during his time in the program. After beginning his career in healthcare helping people navigate the insurance and healthcare system, he is an essential part of making healthcare more accessible for staff, patients, and families in a city where healthcare is thriving.
“Biotech is booming in Philadelphia, and that goes along with a vibrant system of different hospitals. People are increasingly coming to the city for their care in the country There are so many things you can do in a hospital, and an administrative fellowship is a great way to try each of them. For a Temple graduate, you can get an administrative fellowship at Penn Medicine, at Jefferson and Einstein, at Temple and many more., There are a ton of opportunities for health sector administration students who want work in the region.”