National Council on Administrative Fellowships (NCAF)

About NCAF

More than 80 hospitals and health systems, along with more than 38 graduate health management programs participate in the National Council on Administrative Fellowships (NCAF).

NCAF creates an industry-standard in the recruitment of administrative fellows. In doing so, NCAF allows for a uniform and coordinated recruitment process, helps organizations access a national pipeline of the next generation of healthcare industry leaders, and brings fellowship sites and graduate health management programs together to share ideas and best practices. 

NCAF provides administrative fellowship sites and graduate programs the tools to help their students when applying for administrative fellowships by creating a uniform coordinated recruitment process, providing access to national industry data, and providing opportunities for fellowship sites to share ideas, best practices, and expectations that allow for the preparation of students for administrative fellowships.


Starting in 2023, NCAF membership consists of two levels: Standard and Council.  Membership cycles run from January through December, but you can join at any time throughout the year. 

NCAF Members

The National Council on Administrative Fellowships began on October 1, 2014.  As of January 2023, NCAF is made up of 118 member organizations including both fellowship sites and graduate health management programs. These organizations work collaboratively to continuously improve early-career development opportunities for our next-generation healthcare leaders. 

White Paper: Growing Together

The Give and Take of Healthcare Management Fellowships

NCAF Prospective Member Webinar

Published on December 2, 2022

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Administrative Fellowship Site Members

Graduate Health Management Program Members

  • Advocate Aurora Health 
  • Alameda Health System 
  • Allegheny Health Network
  • American Hospital Association* 
  • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago 
  • Arkansas Children’s 
  • Ascension
  • Atlantic Health System 
  • Atrius Health  
  • Baptist Health (Jacksonville) 
  • Baptist Health South Florida
  • Barnes-Jewish Hospital 
  • Boston Children’s Hospital  
  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Carilion Clinic 
  • Children’s Hospital & Medical Center (Omaha) 
  • Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 
  • Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center 
  • City of Hope National Medical Center 
  • Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons 
  • Community Health Center, Inc.
  • Connecticut Children’s
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 
  • Denver Health  
  • Genesis Health System 
  • Hartford HealthCare 
  • Henry Ford Health System  
  • Houston Methodist 
  • Indiana University Health 
  • INTEGRIS Health 
  • Johns Hopkins Medicine 
  • Keck Medicine of USC 
  • Lahey Hospital and Medical Center 
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network 
  • Luminis Health
  • Maimonides Medical Center 
  • Massachusetts General Hospital 
  • Medical University of South Carolina Health (MUSC Health) 
  • Medical College of Wisconsin 
  • MedStar Health 
  • Meritus Health 
  • Mercy
  • Montefiore Medical Center 
  • Mount Sinai Health System 
  • Munson Healthcare
  • Nicklaus Children’s Health System 
  • Northeast Georgia Health System
  • NYU Langone Health 
  • OhioHealth 
  • Ohio State University Physicians 
  • Oregon Health and Science University 
  • PeaceHealth 
  • Prisma Health 
  • Providence Health 
  • Rush University Medical Center 
  • Saint Joseph Hospital 
  • Samaritan Health Services 
  • SSM Health of Wisconsin 
  • St. Elizabeth Healthcare 
  • St. Elizabeth Physicians 
  • St. Joseph Hospital
  • Stanford Children’s Health – Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford 
  • Stanford Health Care 
  • The Guthrie Clinic 
  • The University of Kansas Health System 
  • Trinity Health 
  • Tufts Medical Center 
  • UAB Medicine 
  • UC Davis Health
  • UChicago Medicine 
  • UCSF Health 
  • University of Florida Health – Shands Hospital 
  • University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center 
  • University Hospital – Newark
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
  • University of Kentucky HealthCare 
  • University of Utah Health 
  • U of L Health (Louisville) 
  • UPMC 
  • Wake Forest Baptist Health 
  • WellSpan Health 
  • WVU Medicine 
  • Yale New Haven Health System
  • Baylor University  
  • Boston University School of Public Health 
  • Columbia University 
  • Cornell University 
  • Des Moines University 
  • Florida A&M University^ 
  • George Washington University 
  • Georgia Southern University 
  • Georgia State University 
  • Medical University of South Carolina 
  • Penn State University 
  • Rush University  
  • Rutgers University
  • Saint Louis University 
  • Seton Hall University 
  • Texas A&M Health Science Center  
  • Texas Woman’s University 
  • The Ohio State University 
  • Trinity University 
  • UNC Chapel Hill 
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham 
  • University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
  • University of Central Florida 
  • University of Colorado Denver 
  • University of Florida 
  • University of Iowa 
  • University of Kansas Medical Center 
  • University of Michigan 
  • University of Minnesota 
  • University of Missouri 
  • University of Pittsburgh 
  • University of Scranton 
  • University of South Florida 
  • University of Texas at Arlington 
  • University of Texas School of Public Health 
  • University of Washington 
  • Virginia Commonwealth University 
  • Xavier University 

NCAF Value & Impact

The National Council on Administrative Fellowships brings tremendous value and impact to the industry. Cornerstones of the program include:  

NCAF Code of Good Practice & Uniform Application Dates

NCAF believes that the healthcare industry will benefit from better coordination across the field in the development and operation of fellowship programs. All members agree to abide by the guidelines of the NCAF Code of Good Practice, which includes upholding uniform application dates.

The Code of Good Practice dates for 2023 are as follows:

– Application Opens: June 9, 2023

– Phone Interviews can begin: September 18, 2023

– Application Closes: September 29, 2023
– Offers can be made any time after the cycle closes (September 29). Applicants have no more than ten (10) calendar days to accept or decline the offer. If a second offer is received, the applicant has 24 hours to decide between the two offers. If the new offer is chosen to hold, the ten (10) calendar day acceptance period starts over.

NAFCAS: The Centralized Application Services for Administrative Fellowships

NCAF members get exclusive access to a centralized application service (NAFCAS) to simplify the application process for fellowship applicants and administrative fellowship sites. NAFCAS is a one-stop-shop for administrative fellowship sites, applicants/students, and faculty/staff.

The NAFCAS 2023-2024 has two application cycles:

• Cycle 1 Applications Opens June 9, 2023

• Cycle 1 Applications Closes September 29, 2023

• Cycle 2 Applications Opens November 20, 2023

• Cycle 2 Applications Close January 30, 2024

NAFCAS is powered by Liaison International

NCAF Industry Benchmarking

 NCHL conducts four annual benchmarking surveys to assess trends, impact, and challenges that exist in the graduate healthcare administrative fellowship area.  NCHL reports aggregated responses back to participants and to the broader graduate healthcare management community. Responses provide everyone with important knowledge on the current state of fellowships and help our program members navigate the future of administrative fellowships. 2021 – 2022 results of the NCAF benchmarking surveys have been released to members. The publicly available dashboard can be found here.

Collaboration & Education

NCAF’s agenda is member-centric. The NCAF governance structure is comprised of a Steering Committee and two workgroups, the Benchmarking, Metrics Research Workgroup, and the Emerging Leaders Advancement Workgroup. The Steering Committee and Workgroups are comprised of members from fellowship and leadership development programs and graduate health management programs.

NCAF’s Steering Committee strategically sets the direction of NCAF’S forward trajectory, in alignment with membership goals and to advise the NCHL staff on the evolving Code of Good Practice, membership, long-term strategy, events/meetings/webinars, development, partnerships, research and data collection, and member communication. NCAF is currently reevaluating its subcommittee structure and future plans for 2022 will be shared soon. NCAF’s current subcommittee is featured below.

Chair: Dr. Christopher Louis, Clinical Associate Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

NCAF’s Benchmarking, Metrics, & Research Subcommittee collects comprehensive data from fellowship sites/leadership development programs, fellows/young leaders, graduate health management programs, and applicants/students to analyze and evaluate fellowships/leadership development programs.

Chair: Suzanne Boren, Professor and Director of Academic Programs, University of Missouri School of Medicin

The NCAF Emerging Leaders Advancement Workgroup will continue the work of the NCAF Steering Committee. The workgroup will focus specifically on the oversight of fellows networking opportunities, leadership webinars, and additional educational opportunities for both fellows and graduate students.

Chair: Mina Noohi Mirshafiee, Senior Organizational Effectiveness Consultant, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Planning for the 2023 educational content is underway. 2022 recorded content was made available via email to NCAF members and non-members that registered ahead of time.


Watch previous content from our 2020 series. 

In 2023, students, fellows, an emerging leaders will have access to A Guide for the Healthcare Early Careerist. 

This podcast will have three series:

  • Early Careerist’s Corner
    • Dedicated to providing information and advice to early careerists as they begin navigate the exciting field of healthcare leadership.
  • Trail Blazing Healthcare Careerists
    • Dedicated to providing information and advice on how to prepare for interviews and the types of questions asked by hospitals and health systems.
  • Career Stories from the Healthcare Perspective
    • Dedicated to providing information and advice from those excelling in the field.

Interested in Sponsoring? Learn more about sponsorship levels here.

 

Contact ncaf@nchl.org with questions.

 

Podcast episodes will be made available on Spotify and Youtube in the coming year.

In 2023, fellowship sites and fellows will have the opportunity to meet with other sites and fellows to discuss best practices, ask questions,  and learn from each other. Calls for fellowship sites will be held twice annually. Fellows of member organizations will have one annual call.

Investment

Make the Investment in Future Healthcare Leaders. Join NCAF!

Starting in 2023, NCAF membership consists of two levels: Standard and Council. Standard Membership is $1,250. Council Membership is $5,000. Membership cycles run from January through December. New NCAF Fellowship Sites who join at the Standard Level are charged a one-time administrative fee of $500 to get set-up. This fee is waived for new NCAF Fellowship Sites who join at the Council Level.

Become an NCAF Member

NCAF members include administrative fellowship sites and graduate health management programs. Members join as an organization, not on an individual basis.