Eastern Michigan University Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Kim Schatzel has been appointed to a three-year term on the board of directors for the Health Alliance Plan of Michigan by the Henry Ford Health System’s board of trustees.
HAP, a subsidiary of the HFHS, is a regional nonprofit health plan based in Detroit that provides health coverage to both private citizens and companies.
Schatzel, who earns an annual salary of $275,000 as EMU’s provost,
said she’s volunteering her time on the HAP board.
“It’s voluntary, so there’s no financial aspect to it,” she said. “So I ain’t getting paid.”
Schatzel, who has lived in Michigan for 27 years, was named provost a little more than a year ago and came to EMU after serving as dean of the College of Business at University of Michigan-Dearborn since 2008.
She said HAP’s current CEO, William Alvin, who worked on her board of advisors at U of M-Dearborn for about three years, nominated her for the position on HAP’s board of directors.
Schatzel said her duties will include strategic and market planning, and health care is one of the most dynamic sectors in the nation today in terms of policy change and delivery models.
She said working for one of the nation’s largest health care providers will afford her the opportunity to learn about current issues facing the health care industry, which is knowledge she can bring back to EMU’s College of Health and Human Services.
“I’m hoping to be able to bring some of that knowledge back, so that we can develop outstanding programs … and to be able to develop a much deeper understanding of the challenges that are facing health care providers in the health care industry today,”
Schatzel said. “And be able to bring that knowledge back into EMU and have it be channeled into our degree programs and to be able to produce students prepared to address those challenges.”
She said of EMU’s five colleges, the CHHS is the second largest and fastest growing in enrollment.
Schatzel said while she has no previous experience in health care, it’s just another business sector and she’s looking forward to working with her colleagues at HAP.
“I moved from corporate into higher education, and now sitting on the board at HAP is again taking a look at just another industry sector. It’s one I don’t have experience in, but I am an experienced organizational person,” she said.
EMU Director of Benefits Programs Stephanie Robinson said HAP does not provide any services for EMU employee benefit plans, and she is not aware of any business connections between HAP and the university. Schatzel also said she is not aware of any business dealings between EMU and HAP, and would have had to report her appointment to the board as a conflict of interest if she was aware of any such dealings.
Schatzel is a professor of marketing at EMU’s College of Business, and has taught undergraduate, graduate and executive level courses in the U.S. and internationally. She earned her doctorate in business administration from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad Graduate School of Management in 1999, and received a Bachelor of Science in economics and biology in 1978 from Washington University in St. Louis.
As provost and vice president, Schatzel oversees EMU’s Division of Academic and Student Affairs, as well as the more than 200 degree programs offered through the university’s five colleges. After some recent restructuring of the university’s departments, she also supervises student enrollment management and the information technology department.
Her corporate experience includes more than 20 years of new venture and start-up experience, including serving as founding president, chief operating officer and later CEO of ICM/Krebsoge: North America’s largest powdered metal components manufacturer.
