SDSU School of Public Health alumnus selected to Kaiser Permanente’s Administrative Fellowship program
San Diego State University’s School of Public Health alumnus Andrew Hennings was recently selected to join the Kaiser Permanente Administrative Fellowship program. The two-year program gives its fellows diverse experience and opportunities in Kaiser Permanente’s health care operations.
Hennings described the fellowship as an “honor and a responsibility,” adding that it gives him the opportunity to “translate academic training into operational improvements that benefit patients and staff.”
The program consists of three, eight-month rotations, the first two taking place at a medical center and the third at the regional or program offices, according to Kaiser’s website. Hennings is in his first rotation at the Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center.
“On a given day I may facilitate meetings on hospital throughput, develop dashboards to track avoidable delays, partner with our Health Information Management team on duplicate medical-record merges, or analyze data to guide service-line strategy,” Hennings said.
These responsibilities require a lot of collaboration with clinical leaders and with departments like finance and operations. Collaboration, he said, helps deliver better results and improve system efficiency.
“Management is the bridge between vision and implementation,” he said. “Without sound management, even the best public-health interventions cannot scale or endure.”
Hennings’ interest in public health emerged as an undergraduate, when he became interested in the correlation between community and health care. He saw public health as a way to directly impact large groups of people and began to envision his role in the field.
“Management drew me in when I recognized how leadership decisions, allocation of resources, operational strategy, and organizational culture, directly shape the effectiveness of public health programs,” he said.
After his undergraduate studies, Hennings decided to pursue a Master of Public Health in Management and Policy at SDSU. At the same time, during an internship with Scripps Health, he led an AI-based suicide-risk assessment pilot.
His path to Kaiser was not always the clearest. Before graduate school, he worked in sales and bartended.
Not until he pursued his master’s at SDSU did Hennings find a mentor in Jong-Deuk Baek, an associate professor at the university, who led him toward the administrative fellowship path.
“I would not be here without the mentorship I received from him and other faculty,” Hennings said.
Hennings’ journey is an example of how a career path can become clearer with time. He reinforces this in his advice to graduating students who may be unsure of where their careers are headed.
“Invest in relationships and stay curious,” he said. “Be willing to take on challenging projects even when the path is not perfectly defined. Those experiences create growth and open doors.”
