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Nashville Health Care Council Fellows


“What we witnessed is bipartisan dialogue, exposure to world-known individuals, new methods of learning, strategies and tactics I have put to use, and a consistent and engaging forum for dialogue. I consider this class one of the single most important investments I have made in myself.” -Laura Beth Brown, Vice President, Vanderbilt Health Services, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Fellows Class of 2013

Nashville is a one-of-a-kind city.  It is a melting pot of music, culture, people, and healthcare, the often-neglected facet of Nashville, despite being Nashville’s biggest industry.  In Middle Tennessee alone, there are 250 healthcare companies, 16 public companies, $70 billion in global revenue, and 400,000 global jobs, making the “Athens of the South” also the Silicon Valley of Healthcare.  While other cities throughout the country can meet those numbers, none other can beat the unprecedented collaboration, one-of-a-kind innovation and implementation, and combined expertise of current healthcare leaders.

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Recently, I developed and began teaching a course in conjunction with the Nashville Health Care Council.  In the ever-changing industry of healthcare, what worked yesterday or today does not translate into what will work tomorrow, which many of these students have already come to realize with their existing experiences.  The only way we can combat the upcoming tough challenges of the healthcare industry is for the leaders of today to come together and train the leaders of tomorrow to face challenges in the context of privately-held start ups all the way to publicly-traded companies through innovative collaboration.  Together, we can develop strong solutions to the problems of today and tomorrow.

Nashville Health Care Council Fellows Dinner on June 28, 2013. by Donn Jones.

To adequately teach this course on collaboration, I had to collaborate myself, so my colleagues from the healthcare industry of Nashville came together with me to create and teach the innovative curriculum.  The healthcare legacy needs to be carried on, and I hope that the future leaders from this Fellow course will launch themselves with the skills needed to think outside the box and collaborate to solve healthcare’s toughest problems, all while bettering themselves, their companies, and, ultimately, their communities.