ew places have more diversity or more medical challenges than South Florida, and that’s just the way Steve Williams likes it. The native North Carolinian moved to Miami in the winter of 2002 to become the senior clinical administrator and assistant chairman for the Department of Anesthesiology.

“What I like best about this job are some of the same things that I like about Miami: the diversity, the different challenges that are involved,” Williams says. “If I were in a corporate-type job, I wouldn’t be touching some of the academic interests or seeing the cutting-edge research that goes on. You wake up every day to something new.

“If you asked me what I like the least, it’s probably the same thing,” he laughs.

Williams has helped guide the department through a period of significant change and growth. David Lubarsky, M.D., M.B.A., joined the School of Medicine from Duke University as chair of the anesthesiology department in 2001. Williams, who worked at Duke with Lubarsky and received his M.B.A. there, came down six months later. At that time, there were 52 physicians in the group. Two years and ten doctors later, Williams now oversees the operations of a department with 62 faculty members and 50-plus full-time administrative staff.

Williams serves essentially as the chief financial officer of the department. He is responsible for finance, patient billing and collection, and all of the general faculty support. “I manage the clinical revenue operation—basically making sure the services that our doctors are providing are properly and timely billed out and properly reimbursed,” Williams says. Since he arrived, reimbursement collections have increased by one-third.

Williams sees potential for much more growth in his department. “I believe there are tremendous opportunities out there,” he says. “There are also a bunch of challenges, but there are opportunities for us to work better with the community and to work better within the University community itself.”