In February we celebrated the sixteenth anniversary of PNWU’s founding and marveled at the amazing strides we’ve taken together in our mission to educate healthcare professionals for our community. Today, we are thrilled to announce our next steps toward revolutionizing community health.
We are officially expanding PNWU to train even more local, mission-driven health care professionals.
Inspired by our mutual missions to care for people in the Pacific Northwest, MultiCare Health System recently made an $8 million gift commitment to our University, providing the lead gift in PNWU’s “Our Communities, Our Care” campaign. MultiCare’s investment will propel our campus growth and build on our founding vision to bring more compassionate, comprehensive, collaborative care to our communities.
Bill Robertson, MultiCare’s President and CEO, explained: “Pacific Northwest University is an important partner in ensuring communities across the Pacific Northwest have access to the health care services they need. We are proud to support your work to ensure students interested in health careers get the right training to prepare them for the future.”
PNWU intends to use the $8 million gift to support the expansion of our Yakima campus, bolstering our current facilities with the addition of a Student Learning Collaborative (SLC) building which will support current and future health sciences programs. The funding enables us to move forward into the design phase of the SLC construction and prepare for our next chapter of growth.
Already, PNWU’s campus has undergone significant growth. Our academic partner, Washington State University (WSU), recently expanded their own healthcare education offerings here, with WSU Nursing joining WSU Pharmacy on our campus.
In August 2021, PNWU will welcome our inaugural Master of Arts in Medical Sciences (MAMS) class. MAMS will be the second degree program offered by PNWU, alongside our Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree and flourishing College of Osteopathic Medicine. Exploration and planning are underway to add future programs in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and more. The number of PNWU students, faculty and staff on campus is projected to double in the next five years alone.
Our SLC building will be constructed around PNWU’s innovative interprofessional education model, resulting in an even more vibrant campus community capable of further preparing our students for the unique challenges of rural and medically underserved community health care delivery. The approximately 80,000-square-foot facility will serve as the heart of the PNWU student experience, hosting spaces that bring students from different health programs together to practice collaborative care in real-life settings. With state-of-the-art simulation labs and technology, the SLC building will provide our university with the tools to continue preparing our students to extend the highest quality care.
MultiCare’s gift is the latest development in our partnership, which supports the missions of both organizations through shared knowledge and resources. We are eagerly collaborating with MultiCare to develop the next generation of healers and leaders.
Please join me in sharing this good news throughout our community and expressing our gratitude to MultiCare Health System for their important contribution to supporting our vision of revolutionizing community health.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Lawler, PhD
President
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences
A portion of MultiCare’s gift commitment is structured as a philanthropic match fund to invite other donors to partner in this vital project. To learn how your gift could receive dollar-for-dollar matching funds, please contact Michele Erickson, PNWU Chief Development Officer at 509-249-7708 or Merickson@PNWU.edu.