TAMU-K will build a massive facility designed to help train doctors, nurses and PAs.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas A&M University–Kingsville is moving ahead with a major effort to solve one of Texas’ biggest problems: the shortage of healthcare professionals in rural communities. The university is developing an $80 million South Texas medical facility designed to train nurses, physician assistants and future medical doctors all without sending them off to large metropolitan areas.
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University President Dr. Robert Vela says the South Texas Health Hub idea has been in motion for three years, and now the pieces are finally falling into place. That includes a $38 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos. The gift is one of the most transformative in the school’s history and serves as the financial engine powering the project forward.
The facility isn’t a standalone medical school. The academic control stays with Texas A&M’s College Station campus. But, Kingsville would host a full medical education unit. Students would begin their training in Kingsville, continue residency in South Texas and directly transition into the communities that have struggled for decades to recruit providers.
Vela says the program could become a model for the rest of rural Texas. He believes the success in Kingsville could be replicated in East Texas, West Texas, the Panhandle and smaller communities across the state that lack long-term healthcare infrastructure.
Denise Neill, director of nursing at TAMUK, says the $38 million donation allows the university to deliver a state-of-the-art program that gives South Texas students access to high-level training close to home. By cutting down the need to relocate, officials hope more graduates will stay in the region and serve the communities that raised them.
If development stays on schedule, construction could begin within the next 12 to 18 months. Administrators say the project could mark a major shift in how Texas educates healthcare workers, turning Kingsville into a regional medical education hub and reshaping the future of rural care.