The Robert L. Freitas Scholarship
The Robert L. Freitas Scholarship was established to support the participation of individuals from low- and middle-income countries in IEDLI, with the goal of expanding the opportunities for receiving healthcare leadership education for regions and groups that may not otherwise have access.
This scholarship is named in memory of Robert L. Freitas, MS (1951-2020), who was one of the co-founders of IEDLI in 2009. Rob was an accomplished healthcare leader and educator who possessed a wealth of real-world experience in healthcare delivery as a provider, manager and leader.
Throughout his career, Rob worked extensively with developing and improving healthcare delivery systems, both domestically and internationally. He recognized early on that to have physicians, nurses, and other clinicians with excellent clinical training was necessary but not sufficient for delivering effective, high-quality care. Effective leadership and management are also essential to create an operational environment that enables clinicians to do their jobs and provide high-quality care.
As one of the founders of IEDLI, Rob was instrumental in shaping the program curricula, which benefited from his real-world sensibility and common-sense approach to leadership, based on his decades of successful experience in healthcare delivery. As an educator, Rob was known for his engaging style, practical anecdotes, and life lessons, as well as his ability to connect with all types of learners.
This scholarship is a tribute to Rob’s contributions to healthcare leadership education and his enduring belief that effective leaders are not born, but are made, through good training and hard work.