“I loved my time in Boston,” says Steven Summer, a 1972 graduate of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, with a smile. “I mean, a lot of things drew me to Northeastern, notwithstanding the proximity and co-op program. At that point, Northeastern was much more focused on our careers and our work.”
Summer, currently the president and CEO of the Healthcare Institute, a nonprofit organization comprised of 40 of America’s leading hospital and health system CEOs, is no stranger to the hospital administration field. He has had an illustrious career, serving as the president and CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association, and most recently, having the same title at the Colorado Hospital Association, until he retired at the end of 2019.
Summer’s work in health care has not gone unnoticed by his colleagues—this past April, he was awarded the 2024 American Hospital Association Board of Trustees Award for his lifetime of considerable and striking contributions to the AHA and hospital administration in general.
However, given all of Summer’s success, what was the catalyst that sparked his interest in health care? “I came back to Northeastern in the summer of ‘68…I had spent the prior summer working at a state mental hospital in Rhode Island. The head of psychiatry at the Rhode Island Mental Health Center said…” you should look at a career hospital administration. It’s a new emerging profession [because] Medicare and Medicaid were just passed.”
Once back in Boston, Summer immediately began applying for co-op positions in hospitals and landed a prestigious co-op position at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey. This co-op position provided him the career direction and aspirations he had been searching for and led—through a mutual family connection—to a co-op position at the Massachusetts Hospital Association, one in which he participated in for three consecutive years until he graduated in 1972.
Summer credits his Northeastern and co-op experiences for his career success—even citing the latter in his acceptance speech for the aforementioned American Hospital Association Board of Trustees Award. “Use that co-op time wisely,” says Summer when speaking in regard to a successful and fulfilling Northeastern experience. “Use it in a way to explore opportunities, and make important connections, because they may prove valuable in the future.”
Follow Steven on LinkedIn here.
Use [the co-op] to explore opportunities, and make important connections, because they may prove valuable in the future.”
Steven Summer, DMSB’73