Jan. 6, 2009 issue
For 22 years, EMU has given me the opportunity to reinvent myself.
At some universities, your intellectual pursuits have to be conservative
because, if you don't get the grant, you're out of work. But, at Eastern,
an academic scholar can actually pursue what's important to them intellectually
without worrying exclusively about being able to pay the rent. That flexibility
is why I'm still here.
My degrees are in public health administration, but I've worked in highway
safety, alcohol abuse, gerontology, health system development,
health policy, and health care availability for dispossessed
populations — a sequence of mid-career experiences that
gave me great breadth.
Shortly after I came to EMU, I started conducting projects related to
homelessness. We did three major projects that created
a matrix of research on different aspects of that very
complex problem. Then, there were projects on elder abuse and the ability
of the long-term care system to adequately serve the poor. While I have
been at EMU, the University has facilitated two Fulbright grants to support
my work in Ghana. Now, I am privileged to be designing programs to train
young health administrators for Ghana and launching a project that will
use the latest technologies to bring primary healthcare to isolated rural
people in parts of a developing nation that has just one physician for
65,000 people.
Whenever I've developed a new research question related to health care
or public health, I've been able to pursue it and, often, to involve my
students in the pursuit. My teaching philosophy is that my students need
to know how to do, not just read about it. So, most of my research here
has been conducted in concert with my research methods courses.
I teach healthcare administration courses at both the undergraduate and
graduate level, subjects that allow me to really pour out
my soul. And even though it's labor intensive, I enjoy
teaching the program's writing-intensive course, too. It's
something I know that the students will need and they will
not be deficient in it when they leave my class. I know
it's going to be a course they'll use forever. — Contributed
by Amy E. Whitesall
