Dr. Sandra Potthoff spent the majority of her nearly 30-year academic career at the University of Minnesota, where she served as the director of the Master of Healthcare Administration Program for 8 years. She retired in 2019 from the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she served as the chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the College of Public Health.

Her teaching expertise includes analytics, operations management, quality improvement, problem-solving, healthcare information technology, health policy, program evaluation, patient flow and long-term care. Dr. Potthoff was the recipient of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) 2019 Gary L. Filerman award for Educational Leadership.

With a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Potthoff’s research spans the interfaces of systems analysis and quality management, operations research and management science, and data analytics, applied to evaluating and improving healthcare delivery, long-term care, tele-health homecare services and community programs.

Dr. Potthoff currently serves as a mentor and faculty member for Communities of Excellence 2026, a national collaborative of communities applying the Baldrige Framework of Performance Excellence to their community collaborative work.