Health Care Supply Chain Management: Elements, Operations, and Strategies

Dr. Gerald (Jerry) R. Ledlow, as a board-certified healthcare executive and Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, has led team members and managed resources in health organizations for more than 29'years, including 15 years as a practitioner and over 14'years as an academically based teacher–scholar. He has successfully held a variety of positions: (1) executive-level positions in corporate and military health systems in the areas of clinical operations, managed care, supply chain and logistics, information systems, and facility management; (2) management positions in health services, medical materials, and the supply chain; and (3) various academic leadership positions as the director of doctoral programs at two universities, director of academic affairs, director of student services, and director of the center for survey research and health information, as well as holding tenured faculty positions at two doctoral research universities. Dr. Ledlow earned his PhD in organizational leadership from the University of Oklahoma, a master of health administration degree from Baylor University, and a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the Virginia Military Institute. He has held'tenured graduate faculty positions at Central Michigan University and Georgia Southen University and is currently Professor and Chair of the Healthcare Policy, Economics, and Management Department in the School of Community and Rural Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center Northeast in Tyler, Texas.Dr. Ledlow has taught 24 different graduate-level courses, including teaching doctoral- and master’s-level students in the topic of health leadership. “Dr. Jerry” (as his students call him) has made presentations on health-related topics and health leadership models and applications across the globe; he has presented to a myriad of audiences internationally, nationally, and locally. He has published in many venues (e.g., journals, book chapters) and has been author, contributing author, editor, and reviewer for several books.Dr. Ledlow is married to his beautiful wife, Silke, and has three fantastic daughters, Sarah, Rebecca, and Miriam. He is a regional editor for the Journal of Global Business and Technology, is on several publication review teams, and participates as a member of various task forces and committees internationally, nationally, and at the state level. Years ago, Dr. Jerry was a National Registry-certified emergency management technician as a volunteer and was deployed to combat zones as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.He received the Federal Sector Managed Care Executive of the Year Award in 1998 and the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Regent’s Award in 1997 and in 2003. His interests are health industry oriented and focus on the areas of leadership, management, decision sciences, supply chain and logistics, community preparedness for terrorism and disasters, socioeconomic constructs of health and community health status, and any project that has the potential to improve the health of communities through moral, effective, efficient, and efficacious health leadership and management practices.