Health System Administrative Fellowship

Important dates

Applications will be accepted starting in fall 2025, with a program start date in 2026.

Educational requirements

• Graduate of a master’s program and an interest in practicing in health care administration
• In lieu of a master’s degree, applicants may be considered if they’ve completed all on-campus didactic requirements of a master’s program in health care administration or equivalent.
• Master’s degree in health care or business is preferred

Application materials

Email the following items in one combined PDF file to systemadminfellows@uabmc.edu:

• Current resume
• Personal statement introducing yourself, addressing the following questions (one-page maximum):
  • What interests you about the administrative fellowship at UAB Medicine?
  • What makes you the ideal candidate for the administrative fellowship at UAB Medicine?
  • What are your goals and expected outcomes for the fellowship?
• Three letters of recommendation:
  • Academic
  • Professional
  • Other
• Official graduate school transcript (may be sent separately)

Patricia Pritchett, JD, BSN
Executive Vice President, Ambulatory and Administrative Services, UAB Health System
Interim Chief Network and Affiliates Officer, UAB Health System

Patricia Pritchett serves as interim chief network and affiliates officer as well as executive vice president of Ambulatory and Administrative Services for UAB Health System. Pritchett is responsible for ambulatory operations for UAB Health System, which has more than 190 ambulatory clinics throughout Birmingham and other regions of Alabama that manage more than 1.7 million clinic encounters annually.

She is also responsible for Continuum of Care Services, Primary Care, UAB Hospitality Services, and a number of other clinical areas. Additionally, Pritchett has administrative responsibility for key areas such as Corporate Compliance, Quality, Patient Safety, Regulatory, and the Office of Patient Experience and Engagement. She has enjoyed previous careers in nursing and practicing law. She currently serves as president-elect for Momentum.

Dawson Smith | Preceptor
Vice President, Network Development & Affiliate Operations, UAB Health System

Dawson Smith, MSHA, FACHE, is vice president of Network Development and Affiliate Operations. He has served in this role since 2018. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the operations of the managed hospitals, developing new relationships with hospitals across the state, and integrating hospitals into the health system. The hospitals in Greenville, Camden, and Winfield report to him directly, and he also serves on their boards of directors. Smith is hands-on in the day-to-day operations of hospitals and in supporting their financial and operational improvement efforts. During his time at UAB Health System, he launched the Alabama Rural Health Collaborative, a resource center for rural hospitals.

Preceding his current role, he worked as the UAB Hospital administrative fellow until 2017. Prior to his time at UAB Health System, he held senior leadership roles over finance and operations of Shanghai United Family Hospitals and Clinics in Shanghai China. He holds an undergraduate degree in finance/economics from Lipscomb University, as well as a graduate degree in health care administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

A member of the 2023 class of the Birmingham Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40, Smith has been recognized for his contributions to the Birmingham community and the health care landscape across Alabama. He is active in the community as a foodie, a frequenter of the Birmingham Brewery Trail, a patron of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Junior Board of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and a self-proclaimed Birmingham booster.

Current fellow

Antoinette Floyd

Antoinette is the 2024-2026 UAB Health System administrative fellow. Born in Birmingham, Ala., she graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with bachelor’s degrees in both biology and cytotechnology. Her health care experience began in a direct patient care setting, where she quickly realized the need for multidisciplinary teams to effectively care for each patient.

Antoinette earned a Master of Science in health administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019. In her current role as cytology lab supervisor at UAB Hospital, she oversees daily operations in the laboratory, including the monitoring of equipment, systems, supplies, and staff. Antoinette oversaw a process-improvement project to redesign an intraprocedural specimen collection process for interventional pulmonology, led the laboratory through two successful regulatory inspections, collaborated with teams to improve specimen tracking and notification, and standardized training for new employees.

Her continued interests in operations beyond the laboratory prompted her to pursue the UAB Health System Administrative Fellowship.

Former fellows

• Charlie Angel (2022) – director of business operations, UAB eMedicine

• Health system leadership
• Academic medical center leadership
• Affiliate hospital network
• Alabama Rural Health Collaborative
• VIVA Health
• University of Alabama Health Services Foundation
• Alabama Physician Network
• System administrative functions (finance, revenue cycle, quality, compliance, managed care contracting, marketing, strategy, etc.)
• eMedicine