Alum Spotlight: Natasha Shah, MHA (’24)
Natasha Shah never imagined the path her career has taken. The 2024 MHA alumna started her career in nonprofit development and fundraising before finding her passion in health care administration.
Currently, Shah is a Senior Administrative Manager in the Cardiology
Division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is responsible for things
like reviewing faculty effort, supporting initiatives to grow clinical volume,
working with our support staff, and helping oversee inpatient operations.
“What I enjoy most is the variety,” she said. “Some days are
very operational, while others are more strategic, and I'm constantly learning
as our division continues to grow.”
Shah started her career at Johns Hopkins as an
administrative fellow after graduating from Pitt. She credits that immersive experience
for where she is now, saying it allowed her to explore different areas across
the spectrum of health care administration and work on projects that exposed
her to different parts of the health system. “I was also fortunate to learn
from leaders who were incredibly generous with their time and mentorship. Those
experiences helped me figure out not only what I enjoyed, but also the kind of
leader I wanted to become.”
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| Natasha Shah |
During her time as a fellow, Shah enjoyed solving operational challenges behind the scenes, from opening a new site to expand access to care to finding ways to support faculty and care teams better.
“I may not be the person seeing patients, but it's rewarding
to know that the work we do behind the scenes can make it easier for our
clinicians to provide great care,” she said, adding that the challenge of new
problems that always need to be solved, as well as the fast-paced environment,
is what drew her to the Division of Cardiology.
One of the biggest things Shah learned from her fellowship
was to carry forward the curiosity from being a student and not be afraid to
ask questions, saying that asking questions led to most of her learning
experiences.
“Walking into a new department or project can be
intimidating, but asking why helped me understand the bigger picture,” she said.
“Sometimes a simple ‘Why do we do it this way?’ can lead to a much bigger
conversation.”
Shah credits the MHA program with helping her build a strong
foundation that has informed much of her career so far, saying
coursework challenged her to think from different perspectives, with courses
like health policy and law, finance and insurance showing how interconnected health
care really is. At the same time, her extended residency at UPMC Shadyside
allowed her to put theory into practice.
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| Natasha Shah (second from left) and Johns Hopkins Hospital leaders take treats to hospital staff during National Hospital Week (Credit: Johns Hopkins Hospital) |
“I learned and saw that a decision that seems
straightforward in one area can have a much bigger impact across an
organization,” she said, adding that in addition to looking for solutions from
as many perspectives as possible, the program also reinforced that no one person
has all the answers and the strongest ideas come from bringing together people
from different experiences and areas of expertise. By the time she started her fellowship,
Shah says she was prepared not just because of what she learned in the
classroom, but also because of what she experienced firsthand.
As her career begins to take shape with Johns Hopkins, Shah also
knows it's okay not to have everything mapped out because you never know where
the next opportunity will come from.
“My biggest piece of advice is to stop worrying about having
the perfect plan. Focus instead on finding work that you're excited to do and
people who will invest in your growth,” she said. “Your career doesn't have to
follow a straight line. Some experiences that feel like detours at the time can
end up giving you skills or perspective that become really important later.”
Looking back from the start of her career at Pitt to where
she is now, Shah says some of the most rewarding experiences – both personally
and professionally have come from saying “yes” to something that she hadn’t
planned for.
One thing Shah says she loves most about health care is its
fluid, constantly changing nature, which always means there are new challenges to
solve and new things to learn.
“I'm really grateful for the experiences I've had through
the MHA program and my fellowship. I had the chance to work with mentors and
colleagues who genuinely invested in me, and I still carry a lot of what I
learned from those relationships with me today,” she said.