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Mickey Forrest

M.A.S. (spring '06)

Experience

Vice President, Inland Area
Hospital Association of Southern California

Senior Health Policy Advisor
Office of US Senator Lincoln D. Chafee

Senior Policy Advisor
Office of US Congressman Brian Bilbray

Legislative Director
Office of US Congressman Doug Ose

Legislative Correspondent
Office of US Congressman Carols J. Moorhead

Education

UC San Diego, M.A.S. LHCO (2006)

University of Southern California, BA Political Science (1993)

How does a healthcare policy analyst stay grounded in the clinical issues and business realities of a fast-changing industry? Former Congressional policymaker Mickey Forrest turned to UC San Diego to do just that.

With a decade of healthcare policy work in Washington D.C. behind her, Forrest returned to her native San Diego and quickly put her insiders’ grasp of healthcare policy and legislation to good use. As regional vice president at the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) she focused on government and public relations, federal and state issues, and worked with county public health departments. But the fast-changing landscape of the industry inspired her to extend her skills and potential in management.

Starting with the HELP certificate program at UCSD, Forrest immediately liked the program and continued on, completing her M.A.S. in LHCO.

The interactive, applied nature of the curriculum impressed Mickey – as well as the flexibility to select a capstone project topic that fit within the content of the coursework. Her topic, an analysis of federal funding and spending for children’s health insurance programs, fits nicely with her focus today: working as a full-time mother to the children she welcomed to the world after completing her degree. And you just might meet Mickey when she serves as a guest lecturer on federal health issues for the HELP political advocacy course.

Real-world benefits

The program at UCSD delivers unique and relevant benefits for each student. Program highlights for Mickey included:

Curriculum with relevant focus: Flexible assignments let Mickey concentrate on areas of specific professional interest to her, such as telemedicine, physician self-referral in health law, and policy issues of federal and state children’s health insurance programs.

Expanded perspectives through peer interactions: Mickey emphasizes the value of the class discussions—a unique opportunity to learn from students having diverse backgrounds and industry roles. She especially appreciated gaining clinical perspectives.

Skills in new areas: The LHCO program covers a lot of intellectual territory. To her surprise, Mickey enjoyed diving into new areas like finance—and even tapped into some aptitude she didn’t know she had.

Real-world results

New knowledge and tools strengthen our graduates’ roles within their organizations and industries. For Mickey, this meant:

Better understanding across all levels of the healthcare industry: The program gave Mickey new insights in the industry “from the ground level up” – observing healthcare from an operations standpoint and greater sensitivity towards issues faced by clinical staff.

Career opportunities: Impressed with her background and new credentials, a CEO at a regional hospital offered to create a dream job specifically for Mickey, focused on government relations, business development, and marketing. Since graduating, Mickey has also been a guest instructor for the political advocacy module of the HELP certificate program.

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