The Presidents' Forum
April 20, 2005

Joseph Hawkins
CEO
Merritt Hawkins Associates, Inc.

Speaker Biography:
Joseph Hawkins is Chief Executive Officer of The MHA Group, one of the largest health care staffing and consulting firms in the nation.

Mr. Hawkins has over 20 years of experience in health care staffing and is considered one of the leading figures in the industry. Formerly a divisional vice president with a national physician search firm, Mr. Hawkins co-founded Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, now the nation’s largest physician search firm, in 1987. Firms founded or managed by Mr. Hawkins have conducted over 30,000 physician search assignments throughout the United States. Merritt, Hawkins & Associates is now one of five staffing and consulting firms that comprise The MHA Group, which also includes Staff Care, Inc., Med Travelers, RN Demand, and AmeriMed Consulting. Mr. Hawkins is responsible for overall strategic operations of The MHA Group’s four offices nationwide and its 730-plus employees.

A pioneer in the field of physician search, Mr. Hawkins helped develop recruiting systems that have been widely imitated throughout the industry. His expertise has been cited in dozens of health care, business and general news publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Newsweek, USA Today, Modern Healthcare, Hospitals & Health Networks, American Medical News, Medical Economics, Journal of the American Medical Association, and numerous others. Mr. Hawkins has written dozens of articles on health care staffing that have appeared in health care and general press outlets ranging from The Journal of the American Medical Association to The Dallas Morning News.

Mr. Hawkins is co-author of the book, Will the Last Physician In America Please Turn Off the Lights? A Look at America’s Looming Doctor Shortage. This influential analysis of physician supply and demand trends has been called “required reading” by Richard Cooper, MD, the nation’s leading authority on physician supply. Charles Lauer, publisher of Modern Healthcare, has called the book “a must read.”

Mr. Hawkins also has addressed a wide range of health care professional groups across the country on issues ranging from physician compensation to federal physician recruiting guidelines.

A graduate of Florida State University, Mr. Hawkins resides in Dallas, Texas.

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