Posted 1/29/2008

Nursing and public health degrees give her business a competitive edge, Liafsha says

Health care people are usually a right determined group, and if you need proof direct your questions to the pregnant woman in the lawn chair.

That is just one takeaway image from the academic career of Heather Liafsha, a 2003 Arnold School graduate who worked fulltime as a registered nurse, started a family and earned a master of health administration degree over three years.

Moreover, since graduating from the school’s professional format program, she has launched her own home care business and found her name on The State's 20 Under 40 list of the Midlands' top young business leaders for 2008.

"I didn’t realize it at the time but the MHA program gave me the background picture of health care," she said, adding it also gave her the planning, finance, and management skills to start her own nursing homecare service for the elderly and disabled. Besides private patient care, the business also works with area hospices.

MHA grad Heather Liafsha and her twins Hailey and Hayden

And about that lawn chair.

"I was working fulltime at Richland Memorial until I became pregnant with twins and ended up on bed rest. I wasn’t even supposed to sit up for more that two hours a day. I was in the weekend program so my husband would take me to class. I would carry a lawn chair and lie down in the back of the classroom," she said.

The bed rest played out over eight long months, but Liafsha gives credit to "My professors and classmates who were awesome in helping me stay in school."

Dr. Jan Probst was one of those professors who was thrilled to learn of Liafsha's recent recognition by The State. "I remember her as a wonderful student," Probst said

The business venture, Homecare Solutions Unlimited based in Lexington, also was a happy outcome of the MHA program when one of her favorite professors urged her to "think outside the box" about her future.

She finished her MHA studies, graduated in December 2003, and launched Homecare Solutions the next spring.

Liafsha said her nursing degree from Spalding University is a plus in marketing her business. She has also worked for hospices and oncology offices in her native Indiana plus stints as a nurse manager at Providence and Palmetto Richland hospitals.

“I bring a medical background to my work. Patients can ask me questions and that can mean fewer trips to the doctor or the Emergency Room,” she said.

Liafsha, her husband, Steve, and their 6-year-old boy/girl twins, Hayden and Hailey, live in Lexington where the youngsters attend the Montessori Early Learning Center. She is President of the school’s booster club and was the school’s mother of the year in 2007.

She serves as campus nurse for Seacoast Church and serves on the board of the South University Health Management Program and the S.C. Women’s Business Center.

The Arnold School’s MHA program prepares students for management and leadership positions in healthcare organizations such as hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory care organizations and physician group practices or healthcare-related organizations such as insurance and not for profit health care organizations.

The MHA Professional Program targets health care professionals with several years of experience in a healthcare or related setting, who would like to work on the degree while pursuing career and personal commitments.

For more information on the MHA program click here.