Meet the Faculty

Mihaela D. Deliu is an experienced healthcare leader, currently holding the position of Director Of Clinical Services at Westborough Behavioral Healthcare Hospital. She is also a Visiting Instructor in the Master in Healthcare Administration program, teaching ‘Operations management.’

Mihaela has held various leadership roles in the mental health field, in positions such as Director of Clinical Services and Utilization Management (Westwood Lodge Hospital) and Director of Crisis and Healthcare Innovation Services (South Shore Mental Health), with a career focus on strategy and hospital operations. Mihaela is licensed as a Mental Health Counselor in the State of Massachusetts and a Lean Six Sigma Professional.

Mihaela started her career in her native country as a Primary School Teacher. She has also worked for the Romanian Intelligence Service as an Intelligence Analyst.

Mihaela holds a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Assumption College, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Psychotherapy, from the University of Bucharest, School Of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Mihaela is a Framingham State University Master in Healthcare Administration alumna.

Linn A. Morrill is a community health specialist with extensive experience in public health administration, project management and community engagement. For more than fifteen years, she promoted and monitored system-enhancing federally funded healthy aging projects at the Department of Public Health and UMass Medical School Center for Health Policy and Research. She has served in management and direct-service positions in independent and assisted living residences, and taught health and wellness courses at Cambridge College.  She currently provides personal impact coaching services for individuals and couples and is an activities associate at a senior living residence. Linn received her B.A. in Sociology and M.Ed. in Health from Worcester State University

Dr. Robert J. Awkward is the Program Coordinator and Academic Advisor for the Master of Human Resources (M.H.R) program. In addition to teaching part-time at Framingham State University, he is a tenured professor of business and economics at Middlesex Community College (MCC).  There he teaches a variety of courses including Introduction to Business, Principles of Management, Principles of Marketing, Human Resources Management, Interpersonal Communications in Business, Principles of Macroeconomics, and Principles of Microeconomics.  He currently serves as the MCC Assessment (AMCOA).  In addition to providing advice and counsel to Business Administration majors, Bob has served or is serving on several committees and task forces including the Student Learning Outcomes Task Force, the University of Mass. Lowell/MCC Lumina Quality Collaborative Project, and was Tri-Advisor to the Business & Economics Club which won both the Federal Reserve regional and national economic challenge awards in 2008 and 2009.

Prior to this, Bob enjoyed progressive, diverse and successful human resources experiences in varied industries including retail, manufacturing, high technology, professional services, healthcare and academia.  Those experiences include twelve years as a senior manager-serving the last three Vice President of Human Resources.  Although Bob possesses broad human resource knowledge, his areas of expertise include staffing, employee/labor relations, managing diversity, learning and development, and organizational effectiveness. Bob graduated from Boston University with an M.Ed. in Human Resource Development.  He also received both a graduate degree (M.S. in Economic Policy & Planning) and his undergraduate degree (B.A., Political Science) from Northeastern University.  Finally, he has a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. 

Benjamin Bielak has over 20 years experience in technology strategy, design, implementation, and support across a number of contexts including an academic medical center and an innovative high-growth health care organization. He was one of the first people to be recognized by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives as a Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer. He also is recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems.

Professor Burke has taught graduate courses at Framingham State University since the mid-1970s, with a special focus on health care policy, law, and regulation. In addition to the Health Law course, he has also conducted the Seminar in Health Care Administration, which is one of the last courses students take prior to receiving the Masters Degree in that field. The focus of the Seminar is “Leadership in Health Care Settings.”  He has also taught courses for the last seven years at Regis College; primarily a course that surveys the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, and a course in health policy for nursing students who are becoming nurse practitioners.

Professor Burke's background is in elective politics, law practice, lobbying, and teaching. For twenty-two years, he served as a member of the Massachusetts Senate (1971-1993). For much of that time, he was Chair of the Legislature's Health Care Committee. Later, he practiced law in small and large firms. During this period, he also worked as a lobbyist for a regional health insurance company.

His volunteer civic activities include a ten-year tenure as a member of the Framingham State University Foundation, serving as its chair for a portion of that term. Other volunteer board work includes serving as a community member, from 2007 to 2012, of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Metro West Medical Center,  and serving as an elected member of the Framingham Town Library Board of Trustees, from 2009 to 2012. In the late 1990s, Professor Burke served as an elected member and Chair of a Charter Commission in Framingham, which proposed to the voters that Framingham become a city, with an elected mayor. The proposal, much to his chagrin, was rejected by a large majority of the voters.

Professor Burke received his BA from the University of Notre Dame, a MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and a JD from Suffolk University.

Professor Burke can be contacted by email at eburke2@framingham.edu or at elb2186@aol.com or via cell phone at 508-561-8821.

Michael R. Costa, Esq. serves as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of American Renal Associates, the 3rd largest dialysis provider in the United States. Mr. Costa has more than 20 years’ experience as a corporate healthcare attorney. Prior to joining our company, from 2001 to 2005, Mr. Costa served as an Associate and, from 2006 to 2007, as Senior Counsel in the Health Business Group of Greenberg Traurig LLP. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Costa served as an attorney at Behar & Kalman LLP in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Costa holds a B.S. degree in Legal Studies and Business Management from Roger Williams University, an M.P.H. from Boston University School of Public Health and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.  Mr. Costa has served as an adjunct professor at several large Massachusetts universities and concentrates in the areas of health care finance, policy and law.

Ivan Fernandez has been a visiting lecturer of Economics and Finance at Framingham State University since 2002, as well as other institutions in the area.   Originally from Spain, he is a graduate of 1999 from Framingham State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a minor in Mathematics. Upon graduating from FSU, Ivan directly consulted for the Spanish Under Secretary of Education. Ivan attended Brandeis University International Business School where he graduated with a degree in International Economics and Finance.

After graduating from Brandeis, Ivan joined Fidelity Investments as an Analyst in their Defined Benefit Implementation division, where he had the opportunity to work with large corporations such as PepsiCo, Ford Motor Company, and Colt Firearms. In 2004, Ivan returned to Spain to head up a series of projects for Pullmans Llaneza, a leading transit and logistics company located in Northern Spain with operations across European Union and northern Africa.

In 2006, Ivan returned to Boston and joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA to lead a team of analysts which assessed the impact of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform on existing products.  After completion of the assessment, Ivan has since been working as a Research Analyst for the Market Planning and Product Innovation group where he currently focuses on quantitative analysis, competitive intelligence, and strategic planning.

Ivan has taught undergraduate macroeconomics and microeconomics and currently teaches FINA 929 Financial Management and QUAN 905 Managerial Science. He also teaches QUAN 908 Quantitative Analysis for Administrators for the Master of Healthcare Administration program.    

Paula Kaminow is currently working as the Vice President, Operations- Framingham at the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center. She joined the Health Center staff at its Worcester site in 2004 as a Compliance Officer and transitioned to Framingham operations in 2008. In 2012 Ms. Kaminow facilitated the consolidation and growth of the EMKCHC Framingham medical services from two small storefronts to a larger renovated facility in downtown Framingham. The Health Center provides comprehensive primary medical, behavioral health, dental, and optometry services across multiple sites, including a school-based health center at Framingham High School. In keeping with its belief that everyone has a right to accessible, high quality, comprehensive, integrated, and compassionate health care, Health Center services are provided to everyone who requires them, regardless of their ability to pay and in a manner reflective of the diversity of its communities and it serves low-income and vulnerable populations with a commitment to improve health equity and reduce health disparities.

Ms. Kaminow’s experience at the Health Center has brought her into close contact with the functioning of health care systems and reimbursement methodologies. She has developed a deep understanding of the administrative functioning of the health center, including human resources, medical records, quality, regulatory compliance, grant, programmatic and health plan contracting, and policies and procedures. She is on the cutting edge of changes in health care both on the payment side and delivery side on a daily basis.

Ms. Kaminow has represented the Health Center in a number of community networks and collaborations, including the MetroWest Health Care Coalition (CHNA7) as the Treasurer and Steering Committee member, the Metrowest Disparities Workgroup, Framingham Community Partners, MetroWest Moves, the MetroWest Prevention and Wellness Partnership and the MetroWest Community Health Assessment Advisory Committee. She is also involved with planning n MetroWest under the Massachusetts Opioid Abuse Coalition grant.

Ms. Kaminow is trained as a lawyer and worked for the Boston Health Department, which at the time included Boston City Hospital, for 13 years in both the legal and public health departments. Her years at the health department coincided with the beginnings of the AIDs epidemic during which she discovered the strength in community- clinical linkages and viewed first hand major changes in health policy and delivery.

In 2010, Paula graduated from the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation Leadership Program and participated in its Evaluation Institute in 2013. She graduated cum laude from Brandeis University with a degree in psychology and a certificate in education and subsequently received a JD (juris doctor) from Boston College Law School where she graduated magna cum laude. Her primary professional interest is to assure access and delivery of high quality care for all, especially for those traditionally excluded from services, and to help improve the overall health and well-being of the community.

Stephen J. Lemire has twenty years' experience as an executive director of national, state, and community-based professional associations which have focused on healthcare reform, public health, behavioral health, and interdisciplinary graduate education. He is the former Executive Director of the National Professional Science Masters Association, the Massachusetts Health Officers Association, and the Massachusetts Business Group on Health.

Mr. Lemire earned a B.S. and M.S. in Health Services Administration from the University of Lowell (MA). Since the late 1980’s he has been adjunct faculty in graduate and undergraduate programs in Health Care Administration and Business Management. He is currently a full-time faculty member at Purdue University Global and an adjunct at Framingham State University and New England College. He has also previously taught at Daniel Webster College, Cambridge College, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Rivier University. 

Mr. Lemire instructs a wide variety of courses in Health Care Administration. In particular, he specializes in health policy & economics and leadership & ethics.

Dr. David Smailes is the Program Coordinator and Advisor for the Master of Public Administration program and an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Framingham State University.  Dr Smailes received his Ph.D. Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his B.A. from the College of Wooster in Ohio.  His research interests include American political history, public administration, the presidency and American political thought.  Prior to joining the Framingham State community, Dr. Smailes taught at Westfield State University (where he served as department chair and program director or the MPA program) and Regis College.