Health System Administrative Fellowship

Important dates

• Application deadline: August 11 | 5 p.m.
• Candidate process
  • Zoom interviews: mid-September 2025
  • On-site interviews: late September 2025
  • Offers extended: early October 2025
  • Program start date: early June 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:

• Cover letter addressed to the Administrative Fellowship Selection Committee
• Current resume
• Personal statement introducing yourself and addressing the following questions (750-1,000 words):
  • What interests you about the administrative fellowship at UAB Health System?
  • What makes you the ideal candidate for the administrative fellowship at UAB Health System?
  • How do you envision contributing to the mission and vision of the organization?
  • 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)

Fellowship Executive Committee

Toni Leeth
Chief of Staff, UAB Health System

Toni serves as chief of staff for UAB Health System, where she leads transformational initiatives that drive measurable outcomes aligned with the organization’s mission to provide life-changing care. A statewide network comprising 16 hospitals, UAB Health System generates more than $6 billion annually in economic impact for Alabama. Before joining UAB Health System three years ago, Toni spent a decade at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, where she was associate dean for Strategic Planning and Administration.

Beyond her professional responsibilities, Toni is deeply engaged in her community. She serves on the boards of One Place Family Justice Center and VOICES for Alabama’s Children, is an active member of the Downtown Rotary, and is a former president of the Junior League of Birmingham. A native of Mississippi, Toni holds degrees from both Mississippi State University and UAB. She and her husband, Clark, have two daughters, Emma and Virginia, who are rising eighth- and fifth-graders in Mountain Brook Schools.

Summer Tappan
Chief Operating Officer, UAB St. Vincent’s Medical Group

Summer Tappan serves as chief operating officer (COO) for UAB St. Vincent’s Medical Group, having joined UAB Medicine following the acquisition of St. Vincent’s in November 2024. Since January 2018, she has led the physician enterprise at UAB St. Vincent’s, overseeing employed physician practices, hospital-based providers, and a variety of physician arrangements.

She currently chairs the Epic Ambulatory Advisory Group and plays an active role on the Integration Management Council, contributing to strategic alignment and operational excellence across the system.

Prior to joining UAB Medicine, Summer held leadership roles within Ascension, serving as COO and administrative dyad leader for the Medical Group in Birmingham and Mobile, Ala., from 2018 to 2020. She is a graduate of the AMG Leadership Development & Formation Program and was a member of the Patient Excellence Committee.

Summer has extensive experience in physician practice operations. Her career includes a decade with Tenet Healthcare, where she served in various management roles, including director of market operations for physician practices in the South Carolina markets of Charleston and Hilton Head.

Outside of work, Summer and her husband, Chris, enjoy traveling and spending time outdoors.

Fellowship advisors

Charlie Angel, MSHA
Director of Operations, Telehealth

Charlie Angel is a results-oriented health care executive with a passion for digital transformation and a strong foundation in system-level strategy. He currently serves as director of business operations, Telehealth, at UAB Health System, where he leads statewide growth of enterprise virtual care services. Overseeing a multispecialty team, Charlie has launched scalable platforms in 40-plus hospitals statewide, introduced remote patient monitoring and asynchronous care models, and built strong partnerships with over 200 clinicians in multiple medical disciplines

Before assuming this role, Charlie served as a UAB Health System fellow, developing enterprise business strategies, leading COVID-19 vaccine coordination efforts, and advancing key initiatives in operational efficiency and care delivery. His background includes clinical support roles, supply chain strategy, and analytics, allowing him to bring a well-rounded perspective to health system innovation.

Charlie holds a Master of Science in health administration from UAB and currently is pursuing a second master’s in artificial intelligence in medicine. He is a Birmingham Business Journal NextGen Award recipient and serves on several advisory boards and committees, including the UAB MSHA Admissions Committee and HLAA Board. Known for his collaborative leadership style and data-informed decision-making, Charlie is committed to creating meaningful change in how health care is delivered, accessed, and experienced.

Clarence Hwang, MSHA, MSHI
Project Manager, Office of COO, UAB Health System

Clarence is project manager for the UAB Health System chief operating officer (COO). His primary role is to facilitate leadership planning and informed decision-making. Previously, he was the 2022-2024 UAB Hospital administrative fellow and worked with executive leadership to lead and support hospital-wide efforts, including capital business case development, service line financial analysis, employee engagement, and contracted services for Radiology staffing. Clarence holds Master of Science degrees in health administration and health informatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Florida.

Benjamin Krueger, MSHA, MBA
Associate Vice President, System Integration, UAB Health System

Ben has over a decade of experience serving health care organizations, with a concentration on transactions and strategic growth initiatives, and in operations performance improvement efforts. He currently serves as the AVP of system integration for UAB Health System, where he focuses on integrating the hospital and related assets across the Health System and addressing the corresponding operational and strategic challenges.

Prior to joining UAB Health System, Ben worked as a senior manager in Deloitte’s health care mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice and supported clients in a variety of capacities across the M&A lifecycle, including due diligence, pre-close planning, day one/cutover management, and post-close integration support. He has experience working with a variety of organizations, including hospitals, integrated delivery networks, third party administrators (TPAs), and health plans. He holds a master’s degree in health services administration and business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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 discovered the need for multispecialty teams to effectively care for each patient. She earned a Master of Science in health administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019, with the initial intent of positioning herself for upcoming roles in laboratory leadership. However, the preparation and training she received through the executive program at UAB laid the foundation for her to operate in every aspect of a health care organization.

In her previous role as supervisor of the Cytology Lab at UAB Hospital, Antoinette oversaw daily operations in the laboratory, including monitoring equipment and the LIS system, maintaining supply inventory, managing staff workflows and performance, and ensuring compliance with accrediting bodies. She led the lab through two successful regulatory inspections, developed and standardized a training program for new employees, oversaw a process-improvement project to redesign intraprocedural specimen collection protocols for interventional pulmonology, and collaborated with teams to improve specimen tracking and notification. Her interest in operations beyond the laboratory prompted Antoinette 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
• UAB St. Vincent’s Medical Group practices
• UAB St. Vincent’s hospitals