Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing Officially Opens with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony - February 3, 2015

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For Immediate Release:
Feb. 3, 2015

Contacts:
Laura E. Gallegos, Ed.D., (915) 309-5647, laura.gallegos@ttuhsc.edu
Lisa Ruley, (915) 479-5798, lisa.ruley@ttuhsc.edu

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) El Paso Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing (GGHSON) officially opened today (Feb. 3, 2015) with a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new location on the corner of 201 N. Concepcion Street and Alberta Avenue in El Paso.

The new 34,000-square-foot facility, which is located directly across from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Medical Education Building, will include a high-tech environment for faculty and students; a 12,000-square-foot simulation lab; four classrooms; and collaborative learning spaces. The GGHSON offers an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program as well as a new R.N. to BSN program.

“The Texas Tech University System is excited about the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing and its future,” TTU System Chancellor Robert Duncan said. “We have an outstanding health-related institution in El Paso, and we have an incredible opportunity to impact health care by training first-class nursing students in a first-class facility. I want to thank the Hunt family for their generosity and congratulate, Dr. Lange, Dr. Novotny as well as the entire team for their vision and passion that made today possible.”

The GGHSON responded to a severe nursing shortage in the greater El Paso region by admitting its first class of BSN students in 2011. The school now has approximately 90 students and 10 faculty members, and GGHSON Founding Dean Jeanne Novotny, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, says those numbers are expected to grow.

“We are dedicated to expanding the quality and size of the faculty, launching new degree programs and positioning the school as a leader in academic nursing,” Novotny said. “We will expand student enrollment by opening access to a world-class nursing education for a diverse, highly competitive student body that will focus on the health care needs of the borderland.

The GGHSON, a $14.5 million project, was established through a generous donation from the Hunt Family Foundation in 2010. The school was named the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing in honor of Gayle, the wife of El Paso businessman and philanthropist Woody Hunt.

The construction of the GGHSON building was also made possible through funding from the Medical Center of the Americas (MCA) Foundation. The area where the building is located is intended to enable the redevelopment of a noncontiguous subset of approximately 440 acres of land included in the MCA master plan. The GGHSON is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, an autonomous accrediting agency that contributes to the public’s health by assessing and identifying programs that engage in effective educational practices.

Administrators anticipate the school will grow to 300 students in five years to counteract the long-term nursing shortage in the medically underserved El Paso region.

The GGHSON is one of three schools at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. The other schools are the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and a regional campus of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

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