Metro Nashville’s health care ecosystem is like the human body: Big things happen where we can’t see them. Blue Raiders are doing lifesaving work behind the scenes in medical labs, business startups, industrial settings, and corner offices.

Several Master of Science in Professional Science concentrations are springboards for these industry jobs, combining a foundational business education with health-related coursework. Rather than writing a thesis, students get real-world experience through an internship.

Charles Chusuei, advisor for the new Chemistry Analytics concentration for the degree, says it has three regional partners—Volunteer Botanicals, National HealthCare Corp., and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation—to provide those opportunities.

Health Care Informatics, Biostatistics, and Biotechnology are other Professional Science concentrations that do well in the industry. Biotech advisor James Robertson said his graduates typically stay local, working for a diagnostic or research lab, a biotech firm, or a cannabis/CBD startup.

The Occupational Health and Safety master’s program, in Engineering Technology, is popular with both working adults and full-time students, said coordinator Saleh Sbenaty. They apply their training in industry and government to prevent disease, injury, and environmental hazards in work settings.

Years of high-profile environmental disasters, like last year’s train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have driven international interest in the field, Sbenaty said.

MTSU’s degree is unusual—and unusually  marketable—because the curriculum includes technical project management, Six Sigma, and other management courses.

Executives in training also can find flexible options with MTSU’s Health Care Management M.B.A. concentration.

Ph.D. grads are making their mark on the health care sector too. Angela Bowman, a biostatistician who teaches in the Human Performance Ph.D. program, says graduates often wind up in upper management in Nashville, even C-suites. But they’re working on programs and policies designed to reach every corner of Tennessee.

Environmental disasters  . . . have driven international interest in the field. 

Amy Jetton, associate professor of Biology, says the Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences is a good foundation for a variety of industry jobs, from conducting medical research to managing clinical trials. The Tennessee Center for Botanical Medicine Research at MTSU, established to develop new drugs and nutritional supplements from plants, also is forging paths to new careers in the ancient industry of natural medicine.

But the pandemic showed that Biology majors in general are marketable, she said. Nashville’s Aegis Sciences Corp., which conducted COVID-19 testing, “was hiring anybody they could get—master’s, bachelor’s—but also taking people part time while they were still in school, so they could snap them up as soon as they were done.”

—Allison Gorman