The lessons Keldrick Averhart, M.H.A. ’23 learned at Seton Hall are enhancing his work as a U.S. Navy corpsman in locations around the globe.
In 2021, a devastating earthquake shook Haiti, killing more than 2,000 people and injuring more than 12,000 others. Navy corpsman Keldrick Averhart was sent there as part of a U.S. military deployment to help the disaster relief effort.
“Health care is already hard enough, especially post-COVID, when we have so many logistical issues,” Averhart says. “But now try to do that in Haiti, which is a couple thousand miles away. It’s hard to get resources there on time, in the place they need to be, across three to four different platforms to ship across three different branches of military services. During the Joint Task Force Haiti mission, I knew I wanted to contribute more to my team and the community by providing innovative solutions to unique problems. The only way I knew how to do that was to expand my education.”
That’s why Averhart, who completed Seton Hall’s Master of Healthcare Administration (M.H.A.) degree online while deployed as a behavioral health tech in the U.S. Navy, says he’s grateful for courses like Emergency Management for Health Professionals, which have prepared him for complex situations.
When a ship isn’t capable of caring for a particular patient, for example, a decision must be made. “Do we send them to Puerto Rico? Do we send them to America?” Averhart says. “And if one of our Marines or sailors gets injured while taking care of people, where do we send them? We have contingency plan on top of contingency plan on top of contingency plan.”
From the time Averhart was small, he was fascinated with hospitals — the doctors, nurses, people who cleaned. “I look at it like a human body,” he says. “That organization grows, develops and helps improve the community. I always wanted to be part of that.”
Averhart’s dual interest in patient care and the business side of healing made healthcare administration a natural fit when thinking about the next steps for his career; he was drawn to what Seton Hall’s M.H.A. program offered. “It wasn’t a cookie-cutter [option] where I could just do the bare minimum, get my degree and say, ‘Hey, I’m done,’” he says. “I’d have to go through a rigorous program to get my degree.” And its hybrid blend of in-person and online learning accommodated his Navy career.
“Seton Hall’s M.H.A. program appeals to healthcare professionals like Keldrick who value its blend of leadership training and real-world applications,” says Anne M. Hewitt, professor emerita. She noted that Seton Hall has one of only a handful of accredited M.H.A. programs in the U.S. to offer a course on emergency management, a critical subject for administrators and C-level executives across the healthcare landscape.
To successfully balance his studies and military life, Averhart planned a month ahead, setting priorities with his Navy chain of command and Seton Hall professors. His job entailed both administrative work and visiting ships or clinics to see patients with mental health diagnoses ranging from anxiety and chronic depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. During an especially hectic week, he might also swoop in to help at surgical sites, seeing patients with gunshot wounds, mangled limbs, broken legs. “I’m out there mending those inside of a surgery unit,” he says.
Since he began the M.H.A. program in fall 2020, Averhart has had postings in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. “I finished my degree while stationed in Guam,” he says.
Averhart completed his degree in August 2023 and received his diploma in May. He hopes to become a commissioned Navy healthcare administration officer, and while in Guam he’d like to teach healthcare administration as a professor.
“Keldrick epitomizes Seton Hall’s tradition of servant leadership,” says Nalin Johri, director
of the M.H.A. program. “His professionalism and sense of caring will help propel his future career as a healthcare leader.”
Kristen Licciardi is a senior manager of marketing and communications at Seton Hall. Kimberly Olson is a freelance writer based in New York City.
