LEARNING BY LEADING
How South Carolina’s MHA program is redefining sustainability through real-world experience
Awards mark achievement. At their best, they reflect a philosophy put into practice. At the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, Nabil Natafgi, Ph.D., MPH, CPH—Assistant Professor and MHA Program Interim Director—and Bankole (Banky) Olatosi, Ph.D., MPH, MS, FACHE—Associate Professor—lead a program where sustainability is not an elective, but a vision for how future healthcare leaders are trained.
From day-one graduate assistantships inside healthcare organizations to practitioner-led instruction grounded in real operational challenges, the learning model is intentionally applied and deeply connected to the field.
As the 2026 Canon Award for Excellence in Sustainability in Healthcare Management Education and Practice winner, the South Carolina program is an example of how experiential learning, systems thinking and responsible leadership can intersect to shape healthcare’s next generation. We asked Dr. Natafgi and Dr. Olatosi how the program is setting a standard of excellence for others to follow.
What does the CAHME recognition mean to your students and faculty?
It is a meaningful affirmation of the collective work of our faculty, students, alumni and partners. It reinforces the importance of intentionally designing healthcare management education that balances operational excellence with social, environmental and population
health responsibility.
For our students and faculty, the recognition validates the time and effort invested in experiential learning, applied problem-solving and systems thinking, and signals that this work is nationally relevant and impactful.
What core principles and practices most set your program apart and led to this achievement?
One distinguishing feature is its strong practice-based emphasis. From the first day, students are placed in healthcare organizations through graduate assistantships, where they work part-time and engage directly with real operational, strategic and leadership challenges.
This early and sustained exposure allows students to apply classroom learning in real time and develop a deep understanding of how healthcare organizations function in practice.
In addition, the majority of our teaching faculty are active practitioners in the field—ranging from executives and vice presidents of operations in large health systems to financial consultants, accountants, practice managers, directors of operations and healthcare legal counsel. This practitioner-led teaching model ensures instruction is grounded in current industry realities and reinforces a culture of applied learning, relevance and continuous improvement.
Together, these practices create a learning environment that is deeply connected to the healthcare workforce and well aligned with the intent of the Canon award.
How is sustainability embedded in your curriculum, partnerships or community engagement?
We approach sustainability holistically, integrating environmental, social and governance considerations across curriculum, experiential learning and partnerships. Students engage with ESG frameworks, simulation-based decision-making and applied projects that challenge them to balance environmental impact, ethical responsibility and financial feasibility.
Experiential tools such as the Carbon Emissions Learning Lab (CELL), graduate assistantships within healthcare organizations, and partnerships with health systems allow students to confront real sustainability challenges and develop practical leadership skills.
How do you ensure faculty, leadership and students stay aligned around quality improvement and long-term program goals?
Alignment is maintained through intentional collaboration and continuous feedback across multiple levels of the program. Faculty work closely together on curriculum design, assessment and course sequencing, while students are actively engaged through leadership roles, experiential learning and structured reflection. Alumni and Advisory Board members provide ongoing external perspective that helps ensure relevance to the healthcare workforce.
Equally important, we maintain direct feedback from the field through graduate assistantship evaluations and management residency preceptor surveys. These inputs provide real-time insight into student performance, emerging skill needs and evolving expectations of healthcare executives. This feedback is systematically reviewed and used to inform curricular adjustments and program improvements.
The timing of the Canon award is especially meaningful as we prepare for a broader curriculum review and reimagining, ensuring the program continues to reflect innovations in healthcare leadership, including advances in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), analytics and new models of care delivery. This structured, feedback-driven approach ensures that quality improvement remains a shared, mission-driven responsibility rather than a top-down exercise.
What advice would you offer leaders seeking to strengthen performance, culture and impact?
We encourage leaders to invest in people and partnerships as much as processes. Building a strong culture of trust, accountability and learning creates the conditions for sustained performance. At the same time, leaders should remain flexible and responsive—using data, stakeholder input and reflection to adapt strategies as environments change. Long-term impact comes from aligning values with action and maintaining clarity of purpose.
What opportunities and challenges lie ahead for graduate health management programs?
They face both the challenge and opportunity of preparing leaders for increasing system complexity, workforce strain and rapid transformation. Programs must continue to evolve by emphasizing adaptability, systems thinking and cross-sector collaboration.
At the same time, future healthcare leaders must be prepared to thoughtfully leverage emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to improve decision-making and deliver more patient-centered, responsive care in increasingly diverse and global contexts.
We are responding by expanding experiential learning, strengthening global and interprofessional perspectives, and integrating sustainability, equity and innovation into leadership development. We intentionally expose students to global health system models and peer examples beyond local and national boundaries, reinforcing the concept of learning health systems that continuously adapt, learn and improve.
