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DSU HIM director to serve on Education Strategy Committee

            Dakota State University Health Information Management Director, Dorine Bennett has been selected to serve on the Education Strategy Committee (ESC). The committee is designed to provide the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Board of Directors with recommendations on how to strengthen the academic foundation of the Health Information Management (HIM) profession. The committee will also advise the Board of Directors on faculty development needs and how the association might help support them.

 “I think it is good for DSU to have a representative on this committee so that we are involved in the strategic initiatives for national health information management education,” said Bennett. “It will help us to ensure that we are remaining on the leading edge with educational trends.”

Some of the duties that Bennett will share by being on the Education Strategy Committee are:

• To identify and analyze root causes for the current state of the network of baccalaureate programs and formulate recommendations for strategic actions open to AHIMA.
• Recommend strategies to expand the pool of qualified HIT/HIA faculty
• Recommend strategies to encourage faculty to pursue advanced degrees
• Identify best practices in student recruitment
• Identify best practices in faculty development
• New Faculty and Doctoral Mentoring
• Curriculum model development and revisions
• Research activities related to faculty, students and academic programs needs
• Summer Symposium and Teacher Preparation Workshop and
• AOE Community of Practice Transition

“I will be providing input that will reflect the educational setting of our HIM programs as well as the health information management profession in our region,” said Bennett.

According to Lorraine Smalley, AHIMA Director of Volunteer Services, all AHIMA specialty groups, including the Assembly on Education (AOE) began a transition to Communities of Practice in 2001. These electronic communities no longer need an elected board and the AOE recommended that a committee be designed to assure for the continuation of AHIMA educational strategies, creating the ESC.

“As the AOE had overseen several key initiatives the AHIMA Board of Directors appointed the four remaining AOE members and four others to the Education Strategy Committee,” said Smalley. “The Education Strategy Committee’s activities will incorporate many of the activities previously overseen by the AOE Board.”

Bennett was elected to serve on the AOE Board of Directors in 2001. Her tenure on the AOE Board concludes at the end of this year.