“This beautiful new facility will be a cornerstone for Marshall’s
health sciences campus,” says Gayle Brazeau, dean of the school
of pharmacy.
The pharmacy school has a current enrollment of 249 stu-
dents and 55 faculty and staff. This new location, which is near
the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and the Marshall Uni-
versity Forensic Science Center (MUFSC), will allow pharmacy
students to work closely with the school of medicine, MUFSC,
Cabell Huntington Hospital, Mountain Health, Marshall Health
and colleagues located on Marshall’s Huntington campus.
Stephen J. Kopp Hall, home of Marshall
University’s new pharmacy school.
Photo by Marshall University.
According to Joseph Shapiro, dean of the school of medicine,
a more cohesive campus coupled with the new state-of-the-art
facilities will not only benefit the students but will also boost
the university’s research efforts.
“Team science and collaboration are cornerstones in the
research world,” he says. “The move to geographically anchor
our schools of medicine and pharmacy in the same area is
incredibly beneficial for our programs. Simply put, the move will
streamline our operations and collaboration will run smoother.”
West Virginia Northern Community College
BY OLIVIA MILLER. After identifying a need for skilled workers in
the welding and petroleum technology industry, West Virginia
Northern Community College (WVNCC) set out to construct
a facility that would allow the college to accept and train more
students in its welding and petroleum technology programs.
The end result was the Industrial Technology Center, which
opened in fall 2018. Occupying the space of the former WESCO
building in downtown Wheeling, the center is now the fifth
building on WVNCC’s campus.
Lab space in West Virginia
Northern Community College’s
Industrial Technology Center.
Photo by David Barnhardt.
The 20,000-square-foot center significantly expanded the
college’s welding and technology programs by adding a welding
lab, petroleum technology lab, three classrooms, a student
lounge, faculty offices and an outdoor lab space that gives
students the opportunity to participate in on-site field experiences.
Prior to construction of the center, students and faculty members
were required to travel across town to access the outdoor lab.
With the relocation of the lab space to the downtown campus,
students can easily work on oilfield equipment such as pipelines
and valves.
The $4.7 million center also encompasses an unspecified lab
space that allows for room to expand as industry demands shift.
“The flexible lab will allow us to quickly adapt to growing
needs in the area,” says David Barnhart, director of marketing
and public relations at WVNCC. “That’s one of the great
things about community colleges—we’re able to adapt quickly
and head in a certain direction of training people might need
if the region or industry calls for it.”
According to Barnhart, all seven welding students who grad-
uated in spring 2019 were successfully hired, and to date, the
college is constantly fielding calls from companies in the area
that are desperate for skilled welders. Moving forward, the
college anticipates the need for trained workers to increase due
to the rise in the natural gas industry in the region. As a result
of the Industrial Technology Center, the college will have the
capacity to meet demands in the industry.
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
BY KEN BAYS. Just a few hundred yards from the campus of
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM) sits a
barn-like structure that serves as a bridge between the medical
school and the surrounding community. The Clingman Center
for Community Engagement, situated on a plot of land near
downtown Lewisburg known as Montwell Commons, is now
being used to deliver programs to help residents learn to lead
healthier lives.
WVSOM signed a long-term lease with the Greenbrier Valley
Restoration Project to operate programs and activities at the
center, which is named for the late Gwen Clingman, a former
Lewisburg community member who for many years provided
meals to WVSOM students and faculty at her downtown
business, Clingman’s Market. WVSOM’s Center for Rural
and Community Health (CRCH) will manage the facility’s
programs through the Greenbrier County Health Alliance, a
nonprofit the CRCH formed in 2015 to engage communities
experiencing social isolation.
The center now serves as a place for WVSOM students and
faculty to come together with area residents to advance holistic
health and increase the quality of life in rural West Virginia.
Students volunteer at pay-what-you-can food markets at the
center and work in its demonstration garden, which offers
weekly classes taught by a master gardener. Students may now
also take an elective course in culinary medicine that will be
taught, in part, at the center.
As the center’s infrastructure continues to develop, the site
will additionally be used for workforce development programs
and community-based health research, according to Drema
Mace, Ph.D., MSP, WVSOM’s vice president for community
engagement and development.
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