Lauren White, a student in the UAB School of Health Professions’ M.S. in Health Administration program, is one of eight UAB students selected as Hoover Fellows, an initiative enabling students to be a part of advancing education, economic development, technology, business and innovation in the state.
The Alabama Innovation Commission (AIC), established in July of 2020, is a statewide commission focused on entrepreneurship, technology and innovation. The Commission has partnered with the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank led by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and affiliated with Stanford University, to bring the Institution’s leading scholars together to collaborate on topics of technology innovation, education, and economic development to work on the advancement of the state’s innovation ecosystem.
“I see retention and recruitment from the health care perspective and that I can advocate for concepts that affect quality of life and how we can utilize natural resources to mitigate things like burnout for medical providers,” said White. “If you consider UAB, the largest healthcare employer in the state, they have great influence in encouraging people who live here and travel here to use these recreational areas.”
White was selected to work on the Outdoor Recreation Lab, a project assessing the hypothesis that the Cumberland Plateau is an underdeveloped resource or the State of Alabama. Specifically, White and Amanda Summers in the School of Engineering, will help assess the natural endowments as compared to its physical and business infrastructure.
“Initially we are looking at all the resources here in the state – national parks, state parks, recreational areas – and trying to figure out how to consciously develop them,” said White. “As an example, something as simple as additional picnic tables allows more space for people to enjoy these resources.”
“It is exciting to have our students involved in projects that are deemed priorities by our state government,” said UAB Provost Pam Benoit. “UAB and Stanford students and faculty will have the opportunity to develop close working relationships and share ideas and best practices for tackling these projects. I expect our students will be key in developing strategies for understanding and resolving issues.”
White, who is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was drawn to health care after seeing her little brother who has special needs go through the health care system. Her work interest is quality improvement, and she wants to create positive change in the patient experience and processes that serve her brother and those like him.
As a student, White served as Vice President of Logistics for the MSHA Golf Classic Tournament and a graduate mentor for the Department of Health Services Administration Bridge, a program that pairs second-year MSHA candidates with third-year B.S. in Health Care Management students one-on-one. White is on track to graduate with her MSHA degree in 2022.
White is a winner of the Jessica Grundt Stefaniak Memorial Endowed Scholarship and the Jon E. Vice Scholarship.
This summer, she begins a two-year fellowship at Baylor, Scott and White HealthTexas Provider Network in Dallas, Texas. HTPN is a multi-specialty medical group with 1,300+ providers practicing in 360 care-sites in the North Texas area.
For more information on student fellowship opportunities, visit uab.edu/fellowships.
