 ORLANDO, March 12, 2009 — Keila Rooney (right), a University of Central Florida graduate student in health services administration,
earned a top national award for her paper on health care marketing in an annual essay competition sponsored by the American College of Healthcare Executives.
The ACHE chose Rooney's essay, "Consumer-Driven Healthcare Marketing: Using the Web to Get Up Close and Personal," as the best paper among some 50 entries submitted by students from throughout the United States in this year's Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition in Healthcare Management.
"This is the first time in the history of our program that one of our master's students has won first place," said Myron Fottler, executive director of UCF's HSA graduate program.
"This is wonderful news."
As the first-place winner, Rooney will receive a cash award of $3,000 and her academic program will receive $1,000. She will also have the honor of presenting her essay at the ACHE's annual meeting, held March 23-26 in Chicago.
In addition, her essay will be published in a future issue of
the Journal of Healthcare Management.
"I am very proud of this accomplishment, but could not have done [it] without the tremendous support of the professors in my program, most specifically Dr. Malvey and Dr. Fottler," Rooney said. "I look forward to representing UCF in Chicago."
In addition to being a graduate student, Rooney is employed as a marketing director
with Fidelity Bank of Florida in Merritt Island, Fla. As a student at UCF, she has had a particular interest in health care marketing.
Assistant Professor
Donna Malvey was the first to tell Rooney about the ACHE essay competition. When Rooney learned that "marketing" was among the approved topics, she knew she wanted to write about the need for health care systems to adapt to using the Internet. "It's one of the most important topics in health care marketing today," she said.
Rooney also earned accolades this spring when she was awarded the 2009-2010 Administrative Fellowship with Health First, the largest health care provider in Brevard County, Fla. During the one-year, paid fellowship, Rooney will learn about Health First's operations and be assigned executive projects by various departments. About 95 percent of fellows who complete the term go on to pursue executive-level careers in the Health First system.
One day Rooney hopes to work as a vice president in health care marketing. "Whatever seems interesting, I just follow it," she said. "I'm guided by passion."
— Karen Guin
Photo by Thomas Alan Smilie
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