Alumni/ae Spotlight

Susan Roggenkamp (PhD, 2000; MHA, '86), Director, Health Care Management Program, Appalachian State University

By Michelle E. Mudge (MHA '08)

A theme of returning to her roots has served an alumnus of VCU’s Department of Health Administration well.  For the past three years, in Boone, North Carolina, Dr. Susan Roggenkamp has served as Director of the Health Care Management Program, part of the John A. Walker School of Business at Appalachian State University. She “came home” to ASU in 2000 as an assistant professor, twenty-three years after sitting in classes at ASU as an undergraduate student.

A wide array of experiences and education brought Dr. Roggenkamp back to where she was born and raised.  Originally, she was a science major and earned a general science degree in health radiation physics.  Pursuing this route towards her degree, she planned for a technical and clinical career, but by her own admission she “got sidetracked”.  After working for several years in a US Army Health Clinic in Germany, followed by managing an office in the Department of Cardiology at West Jefferson General Hospital in Louisiana, she wanted more education.  With no exposure to business classes during her undergraduate experience, she came to Richmond to pursue her Masters in Health Administration degree. 

Dr. Roggenkamp completed her administrative residency at Mary Washington Hospital and graduated in 1986.  For the next ten years, she explored various aspects of the health care industry, back in North Carolina, this time working for Forsyth Memorial Hospital and its parent corporation in Winston-Salem.  Initially, she managed hospital diagnostic services (radiology, non-invasive cardiology and EEG) and then assumed responsibility for the organization’s long-term care businesses to include two nursing facilities and the acquisition of a home health agency.  This broad range of experiences exposed Dr. Roggenkamp to many aspects of health care delivery, both inpatient and outpatient hospital settings and to long-term care.  However, after almost seventeen years of management experience, she decided she was ready for a new challenge.  So, once again, Dr. Roggenkamp came back to Richmond for her doctoral degree and in 2000, earned her Ph.D. in the doctoral program in Health Services Organization and Research from VCU, where she was also an instructor and a research associate. 

Dr. Roggenkamp is among the authors of several publications analyzing hospital management data and has presented her research at national conferences.  She has been invited to speak about the health care industry to diverse groups, from student organizations on the ASU campus to local community groups, to an MBA class at Sichuan University in China.  She has collaborated with many current VCU faculty in analyzing technology, case management, and physician group arrangements to investigate the implications these practices have on health care delivery.   Additionally she earned the James W. Begun, Ph.D. Award for Excellence in Doctoral Studies from the Department of Health Administration at VCU.  

Today Dr. Roggenkamp is back where she began her career, at Appalachian State University.  ASU has offered a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Health Care Management for 30 years and Dr. Roggenkamp is proud to continue the tradition of educating future health care executives at ASU.  These days she particularly enjoys the aspect of her job that involves influencing undergraduates as they make decisions about their career paths.  It is rewarding for her to watch the enthusiasm build in eager, “wide-eyed”, young people with little or no work experience when she imparts her health care management experience and passion for a career in the health care industry.  And she always tells her students that one day, they too might be back in a classroom at ASU!