Health care educator and avid Philadelphia sports fan Diane Howard, PhD, MPH, FACHE, will serve as university marshal at Rush University’s 53rd Commencement Ceremony — one of the highest honors bestowed on a faculty member for accomplishments in teaching, research, service and patient care.
Diane Howard is professor and chair of the Department of Health Systems Management at Rush University, where she teaches courses in insurance/managed care, health care in America and professionalism. She has served in leadership roles at Aetna in Washington, DC, U.S. Healthcare in Philadelphia, the American Hospital Association and Lake Hospital Systems in Cleveland among other prestigious health care institutions.
In 2024, Howard earned the 2024 UIC School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, was named as an ACHE Regional Advisory Committee board member and lifetime achievement recipient, and is a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Alumni Teaching and Dissemination awardee. Her publications have appeared in Frontiers of Healthcare Management, Journal of Health Administration Education, Healthcare Executive, Journal of Hospital Administration, Journal of Public Health and Journal of Healthcare Management.
As university marshal, Howard will lead the procession of faculty, graduating students and the president’s party. She will be the first academic official to enter the commencement hall and will carry the university’s mace. The mace symbolizes faculty’s authority and leadership to ensure graduates are competent, responsible and prepared.
We asked Howard a few questions about education, challenges in the future of health care and advice for this year’s graduating class.
“Students care deeply, regardless of college or discipline, about health care, and I am personally inspired by their activism. I work in my professional circles to advance this youth movement with employers to recruit and hire the next generation of leaders.”
How did you first decide that you wanted to become an educator, and how did that lead you to Rush?
My father, William Howard, would always advise my twin sister, Joanne, who became a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and me to work with young people as we age because “young people will keep you young” — that the ideas of young people will keep you learning and excited about the future.
Then I came to Rush from graduate school in 1978 and worked for Bruce Campbell, Wayne Lerner and Gary Kaatz. They were Rush hospital executives who taught in the Rush HSM program and were founders of Young Administrators of Chicago, now Chicago Health Executives Forum. Always, the philosophy was to teach and transfer information to the next generation.
So, my father’s admonition was realized when I returned to Rush in 2004 and ‘05 to teach. It was never my intent, but it was something I was drawn to — to work with young people and to transfer information.
What are some of the greatest challenges in addressing health care disparities in communities around Chicago and the country? What role do you see the class of 2025 playing in meeting those challenges?
The challenge in addressing “health care disparities” is defining what the term means for a community and allowing the community’s voices to be heard. There is interpretation of what the community needs but there are no voices from the broader community.
The class of 2025 is filled with ideas and action plans born out of loss from COVID — social experiences they did not have and seclusion because of the pandemic.
During the Health Systems Management recruitment process, we ask students, “Why health care and why health management leadership?” They all respond to their interest in making the health system accessible, affordable and equitable. They see the inherent income, educational and environmental barriers to care and poor health outcomes due to social, economic, environmental and systemic factors, and they want to address it.
The same is true of all the educational disciplines at Rush. Students care deeply, regardless of college or discipline, about health care, and I am personally inspired by their activism. I work in my professional circles to advance this youth movement with employers to recruit and hire the next generation of leaders.
If you could change one thing instantly about the way health insurance functions in the United States, what would it be?
The insurance market must change to incentivize primary care physician payment in a value-based manner. Insurance claims must be paid monthly, and the organizational entities that are closest to the patient must have the resources to address access to care between different populations. Patients must be at the center of everything that is done in health care, and the fee-for-service model where the ability to pay for service takes precedent needs to be diminished.
Insurance companies have enormous data repositories where patient outcomes and populations at risk are identified, so let’s use the insurance function to benefit the population and create value for patients by addressing social, economic, environmental and systemic factors.
What is one thing that physicians and patients are most surprised about or unaware of when it comes to health insurance?
The culture of an insurance company is dictated by its leadership in the same way a hospital or physician group culture is managed.
Much like the AMA, ANA, ACHE, etc., the America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, is the insurance advocacy group. The AHIP website advocates affordable, comprehensive, high-quality coverage and care. Further, the website states price escalation is the result of the health system and drug manufacturers markets where there is no competition.
Would competition or collaboration and coordination with patients at the center of decision-making be a more appropriate strategy?
What’s something you enjoy outside of health care and education?
I absolutely love sports. I wake up at 2 a.m. to watch the Australian Open. But my love affair is reserved for everything Philadelphia — Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Sixers. I’ll add the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins. Each city has a passionate fan base and ownership that wants to win. Plus, sports teach fair play, camaraderie, teamwork and passion.
What is one piece of advice you have for students graduating in 2025 as they start working in health care?
As a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and employee of UPMC, I learned the mantra “Keep the patient at the center of all you do,” and I have never forgotten it. I would pass the same message onto the Rush graduates of 2025 and wish them much success!