A $15 million expansion project is officially underway at Cox North. The Alliance for Healthcare Education is expanding its classroom space at the former home of Cox College, and Monday, it held a celebration to mark the project’s groundbreaking.
The Alliance allows students to enter healthcare programs while still in high school and get an early start to careers in the medical field. The collaboration, announced in 2023, creates pathways for students to go into health care
Funding for the expansion project came from the State of Missouri.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe spoke at the celebration and said the expansion is a reminder of what can happen when education, health care and community leaders come together to build a stronger future.
"This happens because you have a community that's full of leaders who decide to say, 'let's not sit around and study this anymore. Let's actually put something into action and make it happen,' " he said.
Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Grenita Lathan spoke on behalf of the founding members of the Alliance for Healthcare Education.
"We built this alliance together because we saw the same things," said Lathan. "We saw students with so much potential but too few clear, affordable pathways. We saw a workforce stretched thin and knew it wasn't a personnel problem but a pipeline one."
The Alliance for Healthcare Education is a collaboration between Missouri State University, Ozarks Technical Community College, Springfield Public Schools and CoxHealth. Evangel University joined last year as the Alliance's first affiliate partner. And Monday, Alliance Executive Director Shallina Goodnight announced that two new organizations are joining: Burrell Behavioral Health and Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar.
In a press release, Burrell CEO Mat Gass said southwest Missouri needs at least 25% more behavioral health care providers than it has in order to meet demand. And that gap is expected to grow wider between now and 2036. As part of Burrell’s membership in the Alliance, high school juniors will spend time on site training with Burrell team members.
