As Tiffany Nguyen sits in her office at Steward Health Care, the nation’s largest physician-owned and led private health care network, she knows her work is more important now than ever during the pandemic.
Tiffany Nguyen
As the chief of staff, her role includes working on program management and strategic initiatives alongside Dr. Michael Callum, executive vice president for Physician Services and president of Steward Medical Group. Behind her, there’s a space on the wall for her newest degree from Prairie View A&M University, where she has earned her Executive MBA.
“The Executive MBA program [at PVAMU] has allowed me to expand my professional development skills, particularly around critical and strategic thinking,” Nguyen said. “It has also provided me with an amazing opportunity to improve my communication and presentation skills.”
Much of Nguyen’s work is behind the scenes, but her day-to-day work brings her face-to-face with critical decision-making points. She and Dr. Callum care for patients by ensuring the company runs smoothly and is resilient during these difficult times to ensure its longevity in serving patients when they need it most.
“My position was especially important during these last few months when Dr. Callum needed to focus on strategically aligning our company to respond to the rapidly changing health crisis. We wanted to ensure our patients, providers, and staff remained safe while ensuring the longevity of our company,” Nguyen said. “I look forward to the challenges that this new position brings and all the learning and development opportunities along the way.”
Nguyen, who also has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in supply chain management and finance from the University of Houston, previously served as the senior operations coordinator at OakBend Medical Center in Houston. When she began another round of education at PVAMU, she was drawn to the university’s Executive MBA program’s structure and curriculum. She found a collaborative and creative cohort in her MBA fellows, who have journeyed through the EMBA program with her during the last two years. She also found incredible learning opportunities and leadership development.
“I earned a 4.0 GPA in the EMBA program, published two articles, and acquired a Bloomberg Market Concepts Certification,” she said.
As a first-generation college student, Nguyen also kept in focus a love of education she learned from her parents.
“I take a lot of pride in being a first-generation graduate student in my family,” Nguyen said. “Education has always been important to my parents, who were a pilot and a teacher before coming to America as refugees after the Vietnam War.”
Nguyen is dreaming big for what is next in her career: becoming a chief operating officer in the health care field. She says it is a challenging and dynamic role, encompassing everything she is passionate about, including process management, analytics, strategic thinking, communication, leadership, and executing business operations — all things she says PVAMU has helped her prepare for.
No matter where her career takes her, she plans to enjoy the journey and all that it brings – good or bad, and she encourages others hoping to follow the same path to do the same.
“Set goals and milestones for yourself, but don’t give up if there are hiccups on the journey,” Nguyen said. “Learning from your experiences and hardships along the way is where development truly happens.”
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By Meredith Mohr