Executive Program Alumni

Kristin Haendler, MPH, is a Program Lead/Global Marketing Lead at Amgen. Kristin brings deep expertise in global product commercialization, drug development, and brand strategy as a global brand and program lead in the lung and colon cancer space.

Throughout her career, she has served as a specialist in product launches with hands-on US and international experience.  She has expertise in commercialization strategy and cross-functional team leadership across roles as a consultant and with pharmaceutical manufacturers. 

Ibrahim Migdady, MD, MHA, is a neurocritical care physician and assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Ibrahim’s research and clinical work center on improving outcomes for patients with acute brain injuries. He completed his medical degree at Jordan University of Science and Technology. He then pursued his residency in neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in neurocritical care at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Ibrahim is interested in the intersection between healthcare delivery, technology, and innovation. During his time at Columbia, he co-founded and became CEO of the start-up, Scrum Health, in collaboration with other classmates. Focused on developing scalable, tech-enabled health programs that combine evidence-based behavior change with structured peer engagement, the platform improves health outcomes through personalized, measurable, and sustainable transformation for individuals across all health journeys.

Juan P Rocca, MD MHA FACS, is a surgeon in the Abdominal Transplant Center at Montefiore and Chair of the Clinical Policy Committee at the New York Center for Liver Transplantation (NYCLT). Juan completed his surgical residency in Argentina and then traveled to the US for two transplant surgery fellowships—the first at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, and the second at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He is excited about how technological advancements can drive new approaches in surgery that can be standardized and shared all over the world. 

Juan credits his cohort and professors for providing a unique learning environment with a direct applications in his practice. “It’s amazing to be back in the classroom,” he says. “One of the main advantages of this program is sharing ideas with my classmates, who have different viewpoints on healthcare as a result of their backgrounds and expertise. For example, doctors and administrators tend to see things through different lenses,” he says, “and being exposed to other perspectives during class has had an immediate impact on my day-to-day work.” 

Ricardo Rivera-Cardona, MHA, entered the Executive Program eager to create new initiatives in healthcare for Puerto Rico. Ricardo was the Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration. In this role he managed the Government Health Plan (GHP) which serves 45% of Puerto Rico’s population with a 2.8 billion dollar budget. When he assumed the role in 2013, Rivera-Cardona had inherited a system in crisis, with a projected deficit of 200 million dollars. Ricardo streamlined the system, worked to eliminate inefficiencies, and the organization ended the fiscal year with a 60 million dollar surplus.

Since enrolling into the Executive Program, Ricardo found Issues and Approaches to Healthcare particularly informative. “The class provided a historical context for understanding how the US system works and the challenges and the political issues surrounding it,” he explains. “We learned to value history and to use history as a foundation in order to build a future.” Ricardo sees opportunity to effect change in the future of healthcare. His experience eliminating the inefficiencies in organizations is a strength that he hopes to employ in his next role. “My life has been getting into challenges and then trying to turn them around, and that’s what excites me about healthcare.”

Gina Villani, MD, MPH, FASCO was thirteen years old, her cousin died from leukemia. Gina was stunned by the disease and the swift and devastating impact it had on her family. This experience ignited her interest in medicine and drove her to pursue a career as a physician. After completing medical school at State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, Gina completed a residency in internal medicine at SUNY Syracuse and North Shore University Hospital. She did post-doctoral work in Hematology and Oncology at New York University Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital.

"Columbia’s Executive program completely changed my career path,” Gina says, “I started to learn about the bigger picture, how the healthcare system works. It made me see that there were so many opportunities and alternatives to clinical medicine.” She also learned valuable management skills at Columbia. “I had always been a staff physician at a hospital, so management was sort of the enemy,” she jokes. “Learning about management widened my view of the whole healthcare system.”