Physician MBA Program Director Michael Stahl Honored as Tennessee's Communicator of the Year

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Michael Stahl, PhD, program director of the University of Tennessee's Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program, has been honored as the Tennessee Communication Association's 2007 Communicator of the Year.

UT's PEMBA program, now celebrating its 10th year, has been ranked "the No. 1 MBA program exclusively for physicians" by Modern Healthcare/Modern Physician magazines for four years in a row.

Stahl is the first individual to receive this honor from the UT Knoxville campus since the award's inception in 1973. Previous honorees include Tennessee Govs. Ned McWherter, Don Sundquist and Lamar Alexander; Vice President Al Gore; and UT President Andy Holt, who was the inaugural recipient.

The Communicator of the Year traditionally has been given to a person who, by virtue of service or performance, has contributed substantially to the purposes of communication in Tennessee. Stahl was chosen because of his ability to launch the Physician Executive MBA program by using interpersonal persuasion, not only in steering the program through the rigorous academic approval process, but also by motivating its pioneer participants to enroll, according to Linda Lyle, UT communications specialist and TCA president emeritus.

When PEMBA was developed in 1998, few had heard of -- and many had questioned the value of -- a physician returning to school for an MBA. Yet, over the past 10 years, PEMBA has educated almost 250 physician leaders from 39 states, Puerto Rico and five countries.

In addition to serving as director of the PEMBA program, Stahl has published more than 50 journal articles and 12 books, was named a Distinguished Professor of Management in UT, and won an Outstanding Professor Award for the full-time MBA program, among many other achievements.

Source: University of Tennessee

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