The University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska at Kearney are celebrating the opening of the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex in Kearney, the largest rural healthcare teaching facility in the country.
A public event is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the complex, located on the west end of the UNK campus. The ceremony will be followed by self-guided tours of the Health Science Education Center I and Health Science Education Center II.
Parking is available in Lot 22 east of the new building, Lot 20 northeast of event location and at the nearby Regional Engagement Center parking lot south of Highway 30. Overflow parking also is available in Lot 27 east of UNK’s West Center.
The $115 million complex expands UNMC’s academic footprint in Kearney and includes the new three-story, 110,000-square-foot Health Science Education Center II, which opened in January, along with the original Health Science Education Center I that opened in 2015.
Designed to strengthen Nebraska’s healthcare workforce, the complex enables UNMC to bring medicine, pharmacy and public health programs to Kearney for the first time, while expanding programs in allied health and nursing. At the request of the lead donor, the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation, the complex was named in honor of UNK Chancellor Emeritus Doug Kristensen.