Dr. Lana Ivanitskaya received the 2024 Student Mentorship Award, which recognizes faculty who go above and beyond what is expected of individuals who mentor students.
Over the past 20 years, Ms. Ivanitskaya has served as thesis chair for 37 health management doctoral students and taught more than 200 courses. Additionally, seven of her mentees received Outstanding Paper Awards from her CMU. Students under Ivanitskaya's tutelage have gone on to become deans, heads of doctoral programs, and state health secretaries. For example, one of her mentees currently serves as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services of the Federated States of Micronesia.
In addition, Ms. Ivanitskaya leads study abroad courses for students in health-related fields to learn about the Swedish and Canadian healthcare systems.
Ivanitskaya takes pride in being a mentor at all academic levels: doctoral, master's, and undergraduate. She often brings together students of different levels to collaborate on her research. In her teaching, Ivanitskaya helps students choose research topics, teaches them the scientific method, and meets regularly to review scientific writing. As a result, much of her mentees' research has been published in journals or presented at international conferences.
When asked about a specific mentee, Ivanitskaya mentioned a paper by Karen Rosseau entitled “Healthcare workers' willingness to report to work during an influenza pandemic,” which led to two publications. Although this study was conducted in his 2012 year, many of the findings were related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matthew Bognar, DHA, one of Ivanitskaya's mentors, writes: She has spent countless hours over the years supporting my personal and professional growth. Additionally, I know that she has coached many others to do the same. Her style is always positive, encouraging, supportive and motivating. ”
