Academic Experience

With a unique focus on leadership development, the Executive MHA program gives mid-career health services professionals the business and management skills to lead health care organizations.

Competency-Based Curriculum

Health care is an exceedingly complex industry, with its own set of regulations, governance structures, compensation models and more. Health care leaders must be able to navigate these complexities and get results — whether it be improving the patient experience, bringing greater efficiency to operations or seeking to cut costs. 

To teach you the business and leadership skills you’ll need, our rigorous, competency-based curriculum incorporates the UW MHA Competency Model developed by the MHA Education Committee in consultation with alumni, current students, faculty and advisory board members. This model identifies the 23 statements of competency that health care leaders need to be successful throughout their careers. Each course in the Executive MHA program maps to the competencies you can expect to learn.

You’ll take courses in group dynamics and leadership, financial management, population health management, management of health care organizations, human resource management, quality process management, informatics and health law, among others. 

At the end of the program, a capstone project allows you to practice your emerging leadership skills in a real-world health care setting.

Leadership Training

The Executive MHA program teaches you a variety of leadership skills that can be applied to a broad range of health care roles and settings. You'll practice your leadership skills through team-based learning experiences in class, and then work on your personal leadership development through ongoing, one-on-one leadership coaching. 

Program Format

The UW Executive MHA is a part-time, two-year, hybrid online format (Hyflex) program completed in eight consecutive quarters. Classes meet once a month, Thursday through Saturday, in all-day sessions at the Steve Ballmer Building, a UW facility in Bellevue, Washington. Class sessions are supplemented by Tuesday evening webinars, online assignments and team projects.

Our program has a cohort learning model. Because our students come from a variety of roles in health care — from administration to clinical work — our cohorts are interdisciplinary in nature. This gives you the opportunity to practice the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration required in the health care workplace. 

At the start of the first and second years of the program, you’ll be placed on a team that you’ll work with throughout the year. These teams allow you to practice your leadership competencies and serve as a valuable source of feedback for your professional development.