Program Oversight and Governance

Both the Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS) and the Health Infrastrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) degree programs are part of the Medical School. However, the Rackham Graduate School (Rackham) is responsible for overseeing the requirements for the HILS master of science (MS) and doctoral (PhD) degrees. Thus, HILS students must satisfy requirements specified by Rackham as well as the HILS program requirements. Rackham policies policies, procedures and requirements may be found at https://rackham.umich.edu/academic-policies/.

At the program level, HILS is led by director Gretchen A. Piatt, MPH, PhD, and she chairs the HILS Faculty Committee, advises students, resolves problems, and reviews student progress annually. The director also oversees recruitment, admissions procedures, and the doctoral program budget. ??, serves as the Associate Director of HILS; she chairs HILS program sub-committees, advises students, works with faculty, resolves problems, and reviews program progress. The associate director also oversees recruitment and admissions procedures. DHLS is led by department chair Charles P. Friedman, PhD, who is responsible for the strategic leadership of academic, research, and faculty program initiatives the department.

The HILS Program Committee consists of members of the governing faculty with overlapping terms. The committee recommends program and policy changes. Subcommittees review admission applications and make recommendations regarding admittance and review the curricular design and operations of the program. In some cases, policies must be further approved by the program director, department chair and/or Rackham.