TOWARD THE C-SUITE

Amarah Malik knows the United States spends more per capita on healthcare than other high-income countries, often with worse outcomes, and sheʼs designed her Drexel education to prepare her to do something about it.

A student in the Pennoni Honors College, Malik will be the first Drexel student ever to graduate with both a BS in Health Services Administration from the College of Nursing and Health Professions (CHNP) and a BS in Business Administration from the LeBow College of Business.

“Eventually, Iʼm looking to oversee a hospital in a chief executive role,” she says. “To run a hospital, you need a general understanding of clinical operations, but also business operations and policy changes to improve the overall quality of care. At the end of the day, thatʼs what counts.”

BUILDING HER SKILL SET

As a STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholar in the Health Economics Analytics Laboratory (HEAL), Malik taught herself to write high-level SAS code in just five weeks, conducting T-tests and Logistic Regression Analysis to examine large data sets and research how the Affordable Care Act affected retirement decisions among near-elderly individuals. 

LEARNING LANGUAGES, LEARNING TO COLLABORATE 

Born in Pennsylvania, Malik has long felt a fascination with understanding others. “My parents always instilled how important it is to learn different cultures, be a people person.” She is minoring in German, and believes speaking five other languages (English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Arabic) will help. “The more languages you learn, the more well versed you become in understanding what makes everyone unique, where their ideas come from. Thatʼs what really drives collaboration forward.”