Biography:

Dr. Renee Hotchkiss joined Georgia Southern University in the fall of 2007 after completing her doctorate in public affairs and masters in health services administration at the University of Central Florida. Renee has presented her work at several conferences including the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, American Public Health Association, and the Academy of Management. Renee has several research interests and is excited to further expand her research on the impact of volunteerism in healthcare, health policy, and vulnerable healthcare populations.  A manuscript based on her dissertation on the impact of volunteerism on hospital performance was recognized as one of the best papers at the 2008 Academy of Management Annual Meeting.  This paper was recently published in Health Care Management Review.

Renee has participated in several public health initiatives through her consultation efforts with the Winter Park Memorial Hospital Center for Health Futures and the University of Central Florida Center for Community Partnerships. She has been a project evaluator for Florida Closing the Gap, has trended the historic patterns of the availability of healthcare in a community setting, has evaluated the impact of physical education programs in elementary schools, and has assisted in the evaluation of case management roles and functions at the county health level.

Over the past few years, Renee has extended her research efforts locally, working closely with the Southeast Health District to analyze costs and benefits of their perinatal health partners program. She also recently completed a project with the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council to determine provider and patient readiness for a health information exchange involving the use of electronic medical records and e-prescribing.  In addition, she has formed a relationship with the Georgia Free Clinic Network and hopes to further build this partnership in future research collaborations regarding the use of volunteers in clinical settings as a method to eliminate disparities in access and quality of care.

While Renee began her teaching career at Georgia Southern University with several years of teaching experience as a graduate teaching assistant at UCF, her experiences within the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health have greatly influenced her teaching philosophy and methodologies. She has enjoyed teaching graduate students and the great deal of interaction with students both in and outside of the classroom. The student’s willingness to be active learners has allowed her to experiment with unique pedagogical techniques and she has used these in both traditional and web-based modalities.