Justin Rousek, PhD

Alumni Highlight –  Justin Rousek, PhD in Biomedical Engineering (UNL 2012), MPH in Public Health Administration, 2011

Hometown: Lincoln, NE

Current Position: Senior Performance Excellence Engineer, CHI Health (Omaha, NE). This position allows me to combine my technical and public health education to help improve healthcare delivery. I project manage diverse clinical teams to identify and improve various workflow inefficiencies throughout the healthcare environment. Most of my projects include operational and financial metrics, but all projects focus on patient safety and outcomes. Being able to see final project metrics that result in decreased morbidity/mortality and reduced hospital readmission rates for specific patient populations is by far one of the most rewarding parts of my job.

What you value most about your time in our program: My time in the MPH program helped me understand how healthcare systems operate, the current issues and opportunities facing our US healthcare system and how public policies affect public health. In my current position, many of the quality improvement projects I manage have focused on population health coordination, leading me to utilize my knowledge gained throughout my MPH training. The thing I value most about my MPH degree, is the doors it has opened for me to make a real difference in healthcare delivery. Several of my projects have identified more efficient processes that have replaced existing protocols and standard operational procedures (SOPs) at various healthcare organizations both regionally and nationally.

Advice for current students: Take advantage of all of the resources surrounding you throughout your Public Health degree. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your academic advisor, professors or fellow students to gain additional insight into topics of interest – this also helps build your professional network.