VCU Health Administration appoints first Bon Secours professorship

By Lindsay McClaire
University News Services

Gloria Bazzoli, Ph.D., a professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Health Administration, recently was appointed the Bon Secours professorship in Health Administration.

The Bon Secours Professorship was made possible by a gift from the Bon Secours Health System in Mariottsville, Md., as well as in Richmond and Hampton Roads.

According to Stephen Mick, Ph.D., chair of the department of Health Administration, the gift was part of a larger fundraising effort that the department had been undertaking for the last several years.

“Many of our alums are in key positions throughout the Bon Secours system, so it was natural for them to consider a corporate gift to support a professorship,” Mick said.

One of the gift’s stipulations is that the recipient study not-for-profit hospitals and health systems, including those sponsored by religious affiliations. Another requirement was that individual have a distinguished reputation as a scholar and researcher.

“Dr. Gloria Bazzoli has engaged in a number of studies over the years that examine not-for-profit hospitals and those sometimes-called ‘safety net’ hospitals,” said Mick. “She is considered a national authority on the subject of these hospitals and the markets in which they operate and she also is considered one of the leading health economists in the United States.”