Alumni/ae Spotlight
M. Nicholas Coppola (Ph.D., 2003)
Lieutenant Colonel,
U.S. Army,
Medical Service, FACHE, FUSMI;
Assistant Professor, U.S. Army-
Baylor University Graduate Program,
Ft. Sam Houston, TX
By Dale Alward (MHA ‘06)
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola will assume duties as “Director, Army-Baylor MHA Program” during the summer of 2005. Lieutenant Colonel Coppola is currently assigned to the U.S. Army-Baylor Graduate Program in Health Care Administration, San Antonio, Texas as an instructor and Assistant Professor. He teaches courses in Research Methods, Managed Care, and Organization Behavior.
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has served and excelled in many leadership positions as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Army and has been awarded numerous decorations and awards. Some of his “operational” leadership roles include: platoon leader, medical operations officer, medical company commander, and Chief, Clinical Services Division in various sized medical facilities worldwide.
Always willing and ready to keep the educational wheels turning Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has been competitively selected for two full scholarships for higher education from the U.S. Army. The first was a full graduate scholarship for a Master of Health Administration at Baylor University, Texas in 1995. In 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Coppola was the only officer to be competitively selected for a full scholarship in Health Research. He enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia Campus, where he was the first in his class to complete doctoral studies and earn his PhD in 2003. While at MCV, Lieutenant Colonel Coppola was the first doctoral student to ever earn the Peer Award from the MHA class for his example as a role model and a mentor.
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola is the author of over thirty articles or book chapters on medical readiness and health administration, and has presented papers and abstracts at conferences worldwide. Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has participated in multiple working and original research endeavors over the past 20 plus years. He was named Baylor University's Graduate Program “Researcher of the Year” in 2004.
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has been a collaborator on three funded grants. The most recent grant is a 2004-2007 grant – “The Impact of Quality and Efficiency on Value in Healthcare” funded by the Brooks Research Foundation. The principal investigator in this grant is a fellow MCV PhD alumnus, Dr Jeff Harrison.
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has had teaching appointments at numerous universities throughout his career to include: Baylor University, Trinity University, Incarnate Word University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Capella University, and Central Michigan University.
Lieutenant Colonel Coppola has attained numerous honors in several professional societies and associations some of which include Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives; Fellow, U.S. Medicine Institute; and he was recently appointed to a four year term as a member of the Board for The Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.
Lieutenant Colonel M. Nicholas Coppola “Nick,” is a career Army Officer. He was raised in Monroe, New York, and enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers at the age of seventeen, while still in high school. Upon retiring from the military in several years, Dr. Coppola will be seeking a position in college administration. His ultimate goal is to be a University Dean. Nick Coppola is married to the former Susannah Chambers of Leesville, Louisiana. They have two children together, Nicholas William and Holly Kirkland.
