New fund supports health informatics, information management scholars

Monday, April 6, 2020

The Gretchen C. Murphy Support Fund for Health Informatics & Health Information Management (HIHIM) Students is helping to train the next generation of health care and technology leaders who will dedicate their careers to the development and management of enterprise-level health information systems.

The first-ever recipients of the Murphy Fund are Bekele Babo, Barbara Tisi and Kasey Segiel.

Bekele Babo
Bekele Babo

Bekele is in his first year of the HIHIM undergraduate program. He was raised in the Ethiopian countryside by a single mother who encouraged him to make the nearly 14-mile walk to school every morning. He won the American visa lottery in 2003 and made the move to the U.S. with his wife and three children. Bekele worked full time while taking classes to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. His work as a CNA revealed gaps in the health care system, inspiring him to apply to the HIHIM program. He is interested in how dynamic health care technology can give providers prompt access to information in order to deliver more cost-effective and higher quality care.

 

Barbara Tisi
Barbara Tisi

Barbara is a second-year Master's student with several years of experience in the health care industry. She is impressed by the wealth of knowledge she has gained in class so far, from information governance and cybersecurity to project management and data analytics. With a better understanding of how different health care entities can collaborate to achieve a common goal, she feels she now has the tools to make a big impact on the health care system. Upon graduation she hopes to acquire a leadership role designing and implementing enterprise data resources. 

 

Kasey Segiel
Kasey Segiel

Kasey is in her first year of the Master's program and continues to work full time as a health care consultant. Originally from the East Coast, Kasey says she feels more at home here in Seattle than anywhere else. She attributes this comfort to a strong sense of purpose in the MHIHIM program. Kasey hopes to gain the skills to become a better consultant and eventually create her own specialty consulting department at the firm where she works.