UIC MHA Alumni Council
The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) Alumni Council will function to engage and strengthen the MHA alumni network, both locally and nationally, through several areas of focus, including but not limited to:
- Alumni outreach and engagement
- Advising the Program administration on key programmatic issues.
- Participation in program teaching, precepting, and recruitment.
- Career advancement and mentoring.
- Fundraising.
Upcoming Events Heading link
Meet our UIC Alumni Council Leadership Heading link
Our current board
Mike Zeniecki
Mike Zeniecki is currently a Practice Manager of Hospital Based Specialties at Advocate Aurora Health, where he supports the Hospitalist Medicine Service Line across the state of IL.
Prior to his current role, Michael has served in several roles with Advocate Aurora Health’s Medical Group and Managed Care divisions, with a specific focus on operations and finance within complex matrixed environments.
Michael is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Medical Group Management Association. Currently, Michael resides in Chicago, IL.
Patrick Sanders
Patrick Sanders is currently the Group Chief Operating Officer for Universal Health Service Chicago hospitals, Hargrove Behavioral Health System and Garfield Park Behavioral Hospital where he oversees operations for 248 acute inpatient psychiatric beds, outpatient continuum of care, construction projects, denial management, and strategy.
Patrick, a clinician by training, completed a clinical psychology internship with the United States Navy as a naval officer. Prior to his current role, he served as chief executive officer for Lifecare Behavioral Hospital in Pittsburgh and clinical director of various inpatient psychiatric programs in acute and free-standing hospital systems.
Patrick is a member of the National Association of Health Services Executives and the American College of Healthcare Executives. He has participated as a panelist at several Becker’s Healthcare Conferences and is currently an adjunct faculty member at North Park University and College of Lake County. Patrick currently resides in Chicago, IL.
Stephanie Grinage
Stephanie Grinage assumed her role with TGen as the Vice President of Individual Giving in 2021 and serves as the primary strategic partner in cultivating and maintaining new and existing relationships with individual donors.
Prior to TGen, Stephanie served as the Vice President of Advancement to support the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute (IBRI), an industry inspired not-for-profit research institute focused on cardiometabolic diseases.
Her prior experience working in academic medicine has included roles as Associate Vice Chancellor for Medical Advancement, Associate Dean for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine, and as KU Endowment Vice President for Medical Development supporting the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Imani R Lewis
Imani R Lewis is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Near North Health, one of the largest providers of community-based primary health care in Chicago. Imani addresses and strategically plans for growth and innovation of health disparities, medical services, social services, behavioral health, and nutritional needs of underserved individuals and families.
Imani’s previous role was Vice President for Centene Corporation, where she led the top-rated Quality Improvement program for the largest Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) in Illinois, as well as for Medicare, Marketplace, and Foster Care lines of business. Prior to her MCO tenure, Imani was responsible for the transformation of the primary care model of care to produce higher quality, lower costs, and improved patient experiences at one of the country’s largest Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC) organizations.
Notable honors include: Member of the Lambda Chapter of the Delta Omega Society; National Minority Quality Forum, 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award; Institute for Medicaid Innovation, Most Innovative Children’s Health Best Practice Award.
Lubina Hernandez
Lubina Hernandez is currently the Regional Director of Operations at Advocate Aurora Health where she oversees the business operations and strategic development of multiple multi-specialty ambulatory centers in the South Chicagoland area.
Prior to her current role, Lubina served as an Operations Manager within Advocate Aurora Health where she supported the day-to-day operations of different centers within the medical group.
Lubina is an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives. Lubina currently resides in Chicago, IL.
Frank Mueller
Frank Mueller is currently a Management Consultant for IPM (Integrated Project Management), where he partners with clients in the healthcare sector to implement strategic initiatives.
In previous roles, he served as the Director of Performance Improvement for a large healthcare system in Texas. He also held leadership roles in the regulatory space at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.
Frank also works with healthcare startups as a Mentor through MATTER Health. Frank and his wife live in Chicago, IL.
Rebeca Covarrubias
Rebeca currently serves as the Associate Director of Patient Access Operations at Erie Family Health Centers, an FQHC serving Chicago, Evanston/Skokie and Waukegan, IL for medical, dental and behavioral health services. In her role, Rebeca oversees daily operations and strategy for centralized scheduling and referral coordination. She also serves on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Training Committee at Erie where she facilitates monthly training sessions to new Erie staff.
Rebeca is an alumna of Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently serves as Co-Chair to the Mujeres’ Latinas en Acción Young Professional Advisory Council in Chicago.
Tori Bratcher
Tori Bratcher serves as the Director of Alternative Payment Models (APM) for Trinity Health and has accountability for Trinity Health’s national APM strategy including serving as the President for Trinity Integrated Care ACO and other value-based contracts across payers totaling $11B in medical expense and over 2 million lives under management.
Prior to her current role Tori was at Indiana University Health for several years starting as an Administrative Fellow and progressing in her career as the Executive Director of Population Health Operations where she managed a portfolio of risk contracts while building and operating the capabilities to be successful in value-based care.
Tori is also an Adjunct Faculty in the Fairbanks School of Public Health MHA program where she teaches Operations Management and Population Health. She also serves on several local non-profit Boards including Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana and Immaculate Heart of Mary School.
Paul Berrini
Paul is currently a Senior Manager for Manatt and based in Chicago, IL. Paul provides strategy development, operational planning and project management oversight to a broad range of healthcare provider clients across the Midwest and nationally with particular focus on issues relating to AMC and safety net provider strategy, Medicaid delivery strategy, and partnership development and implementation.
Prior to joining Manatt, Paul served as Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Sinai Chicago.
Mike Barbati
Mike is currently the Vice President of Government and Value-Based Programs at Advocate Aurora Health where he oversees the strategy and operations of the organizations 3 Medicare ACOs and its Bundled Payment Strategy.
Prior to his current role, Mike served in several progressive roles with Advocate Aurora Health’s corporate office related to supply chain, finance, clinical cost reduction, large-scale change management, and Value-Based care.
Mike is an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a former faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Mike currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Alex Paul
Alex Paul, is currently an Implementation Consultant for Government and Value-Based Programs at Advocate Aurora Health. His work spans the enterprise to support the evaluation and implementation of innovative programs.
Prior to his current role, Alex worked as a consultant for commercial markets at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with responsibility across all 35 Blue Plans. He also consulted on projects ranging from state Medicaid expansion to supplemental insurance evaluation, and worked on process improvement for clinicians at Advocate Christ’s clinically integrated network.
Alex is an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a former member of the Association of Future Healthcare Administrators. Alex currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.
