The Pinnacle of Health
The Pinnacle of Health New world-class health sciences building expands TWU’s impact T exas Woman’s will have a new, more than 0 million health sciences building on its Denton campus by 2025. Once completed, the facility will be one of its kind in the North Texas region and will serve as an interprofessional teaching and training space that supports rural and urban communities. “Projects of this magnitude have the potential for extraordinary impact,” says Texas Woman’s Chancellor and President Carine M. Feyten. “This future facility will play a key role in meeting the fast-growing demand for health care workers in Texas by graduating highly skilled professionals and offering expanded clinical care for our communities.” Groundbreaking for the state-ofthe-art building is slated for fall 2023. Its location, adjacent to the residential Parliament Village, will expand the campus to the east. The building will fulfill a major part of the university’s strategic plan to serve and support local communities. It will also support a TWU priority — training highly qualified students to serve in rural and urban health care settings. The future 136,000-square-foot facility will feature student-focused learning through teaching labs, a simulation center and a comprehensive community clinic. The new facility will unite the university’s five colleges through interdisciplinary programming. Also housed within the new building will be the clinics that undergird the College of Health Sciences’ nationally ranked, prestigious programs. To meet the growing demands of the Texas workforce, “we plan to graduate over 30% more nursing and health care professionals,” says Feyten. The planned expansions within the College of Health Sciences and the College of Nursing at TWU reflect the tremendous success of their programs and the rising demand for qualified practitioners. “The new building will continue TWU’s legacy of health care innovation, which will benefit students and Texans for decades to come,” says College of Health Sciences Dean Christopher T. Ray. Tell us what you think Send us a note at advancement@twu.edu 6 TEXAS WOMAN’S
QPeople Focused > DR. CHRISTOPHER T. RAY College of Health Sciences Dean Expanding our research from bench to bedside What sets Texas Woman’s Health Sciences apart? We pride ourselves on serving a diverse community of students and patients, and we’re leading the way in Texas by providing affordable and accessible educational opportunities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment outlook for the allied health sector is expected to increase 16% by 2030. The College of Health Sciences is preparing Texans for that trend by producing more than 1,000 graduates this academic year alone. Our School of Health Promotion and Kinesiology and our Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences offer top-ranked undergraduate and graduate programs. Our Ph.D. in physical therapy is the only one in Texas and one of six in the country. Our nationally ranked School of Occupational Therapy produces highly trained health professionals. Our Department of Communication Sciences and Oral Health offers some of the best speech-language pathology and dental hygiene programs in the state. What’s unique about your educational approach? We’re expanding our research from bench to bedside. We’re combining scientific research with educational partnerships. As we like to say, we balance the theory and practice of health science. We recently hosted a grant-writing retreat on our Denton campus to support faculty research on women’s health. Our faculty are now applying for national grants from competitive funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. These grants will support the enhancement of patient care. Our graduate students actively engage in research. We offer several M.S. and Ph.D. programs as well as the Master of Public Health, Doctor of Occupational Therapy and Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees. Some of these programs include accelerated or dual degree options, making them especially appealing. Our undergraduates also practice the bench-to-bedside approach. On our Houston campus, occupational and physical therapy students partner with nursing students to simulate clinical scenarios with patient actors. How will the new health sciences building benefit the college? Our new building will include specialized labs and clinics enabling us to offer new programs unavailable elsewhere in North Texas serving the underserved. Students will also work in immersive, collaborative environments that represent the diversity of their future workplaces. Physical therapists will work alongside nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and health care administrators. We’re helping people live happier and healthier lives by synchronizing our research, teaching and community outreach. TEXAS WOMAN’S 7
