Powerlist – Jeff Seegmiller – Professor and Regional Dean, Idaho – WWAMI Medical Education University of Idaho

Jeff Seegmiller began his career as an athletic trainer who rehabilitated sports injuries. It didn’t take long for him to recognize that he had a passion for solving problems.

“I have found that the skill set I have in solving a patient’s problem with a musculoskeletal injury was the same process for solving bigger statewide problems. It requires curiosity, unrelenting determination to fix the problem and compassion for those impacted.”

Therefore, Seegmiller has made it his mission to research Idaho’s challenges and work to fix them. In his role as professor and regional dean for the Idaho WWAMI Medical Education for the University of Idaho, he is currently working to help fill the gap in Idaho’s health professional shortage, specifically in the areas of behavioral and mental health.

“Idaho has a health care worker shortage from physicians to nurses to behavioral health professionals,” he said. “Idaho must do more to change this. One of my greatest accomplishments has been the creation of a new school of health and medical professions at the University of Idaho. This school will house much-needed graduate health profession programs as well as our only state-supported medical school. To change the health care landscape, we will need all state institutions rowing the boat in the same direction to solve Idaho’s health care crisis.”

In the next year, Seegmiller is hoping to further address the health care shortage by offering telehealth education (ECHO Idaho) and by providing new professional programs that produce clinical psychologists for the state.

“By researching Idaho’s challenges and working to fix them I have found that you end up loving your state even more,” Seegmiller said.