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March 16, 2010

Dr. Kathleen Matt

As you know from the meeting notice, Kathleen Matt, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance which is a partnership between the University of Delaware, Alfred I. duPont Hospital/Nemours, Christiana Care Health Systems and Thomas Jefferson University.

This alliance – one of few in the country -- will combine the priorities and assets of the member institutions and provide leadership in the improvement of health and health services to all Delawareans. 

Key to the The Committee of 100 members, and to residents of Delaware, not only will there be research and the development of advanced technology in the long term, but in the short-term there will be more jobs and increased business opportunities in Delaware.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2008 – the latest year for which statistics are available,

      · Healthcare is one of the largest industries in the US - providing 14.3 million jobs

      · 10 of the 20 fastest growing occupations are in healthcare fields

      · Healthcare will generate 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs between 2008 and 2010 -         more than any other industry

By the way, we baby-boomers in the audience are part of the reason ----we are getting older in case you hadn’t noticed!

· While most of the jobs require less than 4 years of college, health diagnosis professionals and those

    who are treating professionals are highly educated (and highly paid)

· There are nearly 600,000 health care facilities across the U.S. and 87% provide ambulatory care.

· Another  11% provide nursing and residential care

· Just over 1% are hospitals

However, nearly 40% of the jobs in the industry are hospital-based another 21% are in nursing and residential facilities, and 16% in doctors’ offices.

Not all of the jobs created in this industry are direct providers – over 22% of the jobs are management, business, office or administrative support occupations – numbers that are climbing. 

Finally, since the dollar is "king" in the economic discussions, you should know that average earnings of nonsupervisory workers in most healthcare segments are higher than the average for all private industry.

Dr. Matt is heading this unique – and extraordinary – partnership that brings together national leaders who provide direct healthcare and health care education right to our neighborhood – and to the property we all know as the Chrysler Plant.  What a blank slate on which to draw!!

And speaking of "neighborhood", Dr. Matt grew up on Chrysler Ave., in view of the Chrysler plant. She is a graduate of UD with bachelor's and master's degrees in biology, and holds a Ph.D. in endocrine physiology from the University of Washington. Before joining the UD faculty, she was associate vice president for clinical partnerships and research infrastructure at Arizona State University (ASU), and she has served as director of clinical partnerships at ASU and Mayo Clinic Arizona since 2004.

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