Lina Maria Alfonso ’15 (MHA ’20) has been selected as the recipient of the 2019 American College of Healthcare Executives Foster G. McGaw Graduate Student Scholarship and the American College of Healthcare Executives New Jersey Chapter (ACHENJ) Scholarship.
ACHE is a professional organization for those who direct the management services and programs within healthcare facilities and related organizations who are committed to improving health. The Foster G. McGaw scholarship is named in honor of the founder of the American Hospital Supply Corporation. It is given to students in healthcare management graduate programs.
ACHENJ is the designated chapter for New Jersey. Full and part-time graduate students participating in an accredited healthcare management program are eligible for the scholarship, which aims to promote the advancement of healthcare management by providing financial assistant toward graduate education in the discipline. The scholarship is offered annually. Lina Maria is the first recipient from the Bloustein School’s Master of Health Administration program; the award was announced at the organization’s annual meeting on June 6.
Currently employed by RWJBarnabas Health as an administrative resident at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, she previously worked as a clinical information manager at St. Barnabas Medical Center’s Emergency Department from 2015-early 2019. At the Bloustein School, she serves as the vice president for health administration with the Bloustein Graduate Student Association, as corporate chair for the Rutgers Graduate Society of Healthcare Leaders, and was a member of the planning committee of the Women’s Leadership Coalition’s annual conference.
Lina Maria graduated from Rutgers in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in public health. She previously earned an associate of science in chemistry from County College of Morris. As an undergraduate at Rutgers she was a NERA Med Prep Scholar and served as a clinical research assistant at the University Hospital Emergency Department of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and as an executive assistant of Rutgers Reach Out and Read (ROAR).