It is a very gratifying eperience to help refugees and imigrants who are enrolled in ESL programs in Columbia improve their skills in reading, writing and understanding english which is a second and sometines third language for them. Some of the students are actually refugees from countries at war in South America. Others are from Mexico and escaping very bad situations. And some have already been naturallized for many years in the United States and still want to improve their pronunciation and accent when speaking english. Two current students are in Brazil; one is an advanced language student and the other student is learning English from the "bottom up"! Facilitating their studies in English are accomplished through weekly online computer sessions between Brazil and the United States.

Principal Responsibilities: This position allowed me to teach finance management courses in an online setting for both the College of Humanities and the School of Business. I have facilitated instruction and learning for 38 class sections for a total of 874 students to date. Teaching students in an online, asynchronous setting is very challenging and rewarding at the same time. In orfer to know your students it takes much more time to communicate with each and every one by keyboard only. But when need be, I have called some students by telephone to be sure I could guide them through a course.

In the absence of the Finance Department Head, I was asked to teach a scheduled on-campus finance class.

My consultancy services include the review and documentation of a business's accounting and finance management, policies and procedures, recommendations for improved controls, the design of new accounting systems, and the review, recommendation and implementation of off-the-shelf accounting and finance software packages. I also provide the same review, documentation, recommendation and implementation of IS/IT systems for small businesses. I can also provide similar services for record keeping for various types of organizations, including those in the health industry.

I accepted responsibility to manage the largest revenue producing ancillary department for a financially struggling medical center. New fiscal policies on patient admissions to the departmentand overall receivable collections was called for. The A/R balances for government accounts were seriously in arrears. In due time we had this under control. This was the only department able to maintain a full time operation during a serious employee strike that affected the entire medical center.

Principle Responsibilities: Passed examinations and acquired all certifications and licensing required by the Securities Exchanges Commission and the State of Hawaii to trade in securities and sell insurance. This included successful completion of the NASD Series 7 and 66 examinations. As a Financial Advisor I provided fee-based planning services for 27 individuals and small businesses. I left to help address the financial issues of a major income generating department in an established medical center.

During this time I provided management and systems consulting for various organizations. I spent much of my time providing marketing and systems consultation support for the Hawaii operation of a large national non-profit health organization. I improved the fund raising approach in response to changes in IRS regulations and designed improvements to the organization’s internet web pages, improving the public’s ability to navigate the web site. I also set up an automated online reporting to the IRS, and established new policies and procedures for staff to follow in conducting daily operationsI conducted a thorough review of all computer hardware and software applications and presented recommendations for a nursing home to implement. Applications addressed both business and clinical requirements.A CPA firm required a similar review of its computer hardware and software applications, especially to be sure that all of its many software systems were prepared to function correctly with the change in the century from 1999 to 2000.

Principle Responsibilities: Started up and managed Medicare-certified rehabilitation programs (physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology) in five skilled nursing facilities on three islands in Hawaii. The islands were Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui. The facilities were the 1) Life Care Center of Hilo on the Island of Hawaii, 2) Hale Makua on the Island of Maui, and 3) the Pearl City Nursing Home, 4) Oahu Care Facility and 5) Maunalani Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Oahu.My responsibilities included staffing (therapists, physicians and administrative personnel), education and training, management and supervision, quality assurance, budgeting, marketing and profitability.My Hawaii branch in the western division of the company was rated #1 out of 72 branches.I had full management responsibility for this national company in Hawaii. The company was eventually sold to Vencor, Inc. (later renamed Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a Fortune 500 company). Following the sale I was retained in the same position in Hawaii. TheraTx Rehab Services was renamed Vencare Home Care Services. The home office relocated from Alpharetta, Georgia to Louisville, Kentucky. As a result of changes in Medicare rules that seriously affect profitability of the program, I eventually closed part of the operations in Hawaii and then voluntarily left my employment with Vencare (Vencor). Vencor later closed down all operations in Hawaii.

(Hawaii Division) was a 50% co-owner of this company. I served as general manager for both organizations at the same time with equal responsibilities and with medical staff on both islands. (I did not know until the first day that I started with this company that they had created a joint-partnership with an organization on the Island of Maui and I was to manage services on three separate islands). They were waiting for me to serve as General Manager for this second company and start that business on my first day.I spent days once or twice a week on the Island of Maui (and occasional marketing visits to the Island of Kauai) and the rest of the week on the Island of Oahu in addition to monitoring all operations through our online computer systems in order to carry out my responsibilities.

Principle Responsibilites: I provided executive management services for Caremark Healthcare in the state of Hawaii. Intravenous therapy services were provided patients who would otherwise require hospitalization. The home office was in Chicago, Illinois. The Hawaii patients were on the Islands of Oahu, Maui and Kauai. We maintained a staff of 23 including pharmacists, nurses, as well as office and warehouse staff. As the general manager I had total management responsibilities in Hawaii for planning, budgeting, organizing, implementation and control of company activities. Marketing, quality assurance, client relations and profitability were the combined cornerstone of my responsibilities. I eventually left the company to start my own business.

Principle Responsibilities: Managed all financial, business and staff including clerical staff, supervisors, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, social workers and home health aides for a home care agency that provided approximately 20,000 home health visits per year.

Principle Responsibilities: Implemented a time-shared computer service for three physician medical practices and provided all financial office management services and staff and nursing management services.Due to changes in Medicare reimbursement policies, the parent company (Healthcare International, Austin, TX) of Health Care Physician Services (HPSC) (my former employer) decided to withdraw entirely from providing physician management services and I was directed to close the Hawaii operation within a few months. During a three month period (10/1989 - 1/1990) I was able to assist all employees in finding new positions before I closed up operations and financial obligations in Hawaii. One physician wanted to continue with me as a client and investor and I incorporated M. P. Higgins Associates, Inc. to begin providing services similar to HPSC.

Principle Responsibilities: As the Program Manager for Hawaii, I managed all business, staff and nursing services for 23 physician medical practices. The medical practices were purchased from the physicians including all staff services, both administrative and professional, plus the facilities for the practices, and these were provided to the physicians under the agreement with HPSC. A percentage of the monthly collections for accounts receivable collections was the fee we charged to cover HPSC expenses, to include a profit margin for HPSC.

Straub Clinic & Hospital was the largest for-profit medical facility comprised of a group practice of 140 physicians and a physician owned tertiary care level 160 bed hospital.I provided executive management of 8 departments within the Information Services Division including the IS/IT Department, Medical Records, and Admitting. I also provided similar services for the Plant Management Departments of Engineering and Maintenance, the Medical Laboratory and the Quality Assurance Program (QAP) for all 26 clinical departments. The (QAP) was a partially funded Federal demonstration program initially established by the St. Louis Park Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There were 11 participating medical groups from across the Country, from New Hampshire to Hawaii.Additional responsibilities included serving as the chair of PSG-23 (Computerized Medical Records) for AAMSI, the American Association of Medical Informatics in Washington, D.C.I also had administrative oversight responsibilities for the medical and surgical audit committees, and the marketing committee.I developed a program with the American Management Association (AMA) and designated it as the ACE Management program for our organization. The program was designed for 11 managers in the Information Services Division who did not have college degrees. It included courses in human resource management, management and supervision, accounting, finance, organizational behavior and leadership. I was assisted in each course by various experts in Honolulu who volunteered to share their expertise and experience. These included individuals such as the Sheriff of Honolulu. Fulfillment of the course requirements resulted in special completion certificates of management being issued by the AMA to the managers.My responsibilities required and offered me the opportunity to visit and exchange ideas with various staff and management in medical facilities and businesses in 38 states.