Paula Song named interim dean of the VCU College of Health Professions

A portrait of a woman from the waist up standing in front of a window. — Paula Song, Ph.D., is the Richard M. Bracken Chair and professor of health administration in VCU’s College of Health Professions. (File photo)

March 21, 2023

Paula Song named interim dean of the VCU College of Health Professions

Song’s appointment will be effective July 1. She will succeed Susan Parish, who recently was named president of Mercy College.

Paula Song, Ph.D., has been named interim dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions, effective July 1.

Song is the Richard M. Bracken Chair and professor of health administration in VCU’s College of Health Professions. She joined VCU in 2020, after serving as program director for the residential master’s program in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a research associate at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Song will succeed Susan Parish, Ph.D., who has served as dean since 2019. Parish was recently named president of Mercy College in New York.

“I am incredibly honored to serve as interim dean and continue the strong upward trajectory that Dean Parish has set forth for us,” Song said. “It is an exciting time for the college. We have incredibly strong and experienced faculty and staff who are dedicated to supporting our mission and the success of our students.”

Song’s current research interests focus on innovative financing and delivery mechanisms to create more efficient models of health care. Song teaches graduate-level courses in health care financial management and has co-authored several leading textbooks in health care finance. She is the 2020 recipient of the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.

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