Chadron State College President Ron K. Patterson, EdD, visited the UNMC Omaha campus for the first time Nov. 14, meeting with UNMC leadership and touring two of the med center’s newest facilities.
Dr. Patterson, who became president in 2023, said he met earlier in the year with H. Dele Davies, MD, and Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, now University of Nebraska president, when they were in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. During that meeting, Dr. Patterson said he had an opportunity to talk then with Dr. Davies, now UNMC interim chancellor, about the health sciences and health careers in rural Nebraska.
Dr. Patterson said he’s interested in continuing to advance the UNMC Rural Health Opportunities Program, which works in cooperation with Chadron State College and the other Nebraska state colleges to address health care workforce issues in rural Nebraska.
“We’re wanting to look for opportunities that we could fold under RHOP, whether that’s occupational therapy, public health, whatever it may be,” he said. “We want to make sure that we can continue to expand opportunities for students in rural Nebraska to advance to UNMC in the future, and then also expand opportunities for seats and slots within those respective health sciences careers.”
After meeting with Interim Chancellor Davies, Dr. Patterson and Kimberly Paddock-O’Reilly, PhD, Chadron State College’s vice president for academic affairs, toured the Davis Global Center and later the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
The Chadron State College guests also met Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, DNP, dean of the UNMC College of Nursing, and Phil Covington, EdD, UNMC’s associate vice chancellor for student success.
“It was a pleasure hosting President Patterson and Vice President Kimberley Paddock O’Reilly at UNMC,” Dr. Davies said. “We greatly value our longstanding relationship with Chadron State College and the many students who have matriculated from there into our health professions programs. Several of them are now our alumni, and many have joined us as faculty members.”
Dr. Patterson said he was glad to meet Chadron State College alums who work at UNMC and “share with them that we’re very proud of their accomplishments and all the wonderful things that they’re doing.”
Among the alums he met was Kendra Schmid, PhD, UNMC’s interim associate vice chancellor of academic affairs and interim dean of graduate studies, who has a statistics background. She graduated from Chadron State College in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
“We know that from President Gold as well as Chancellor Davies that they’ve mentioned our students come very well prepared from Chadron State College and are very successful here,” Dr. Patterson said. “So we’re wanting to continue that theme, as we continue to partner and move forward.”
Dr. Davies also is committed to building on the existing partnership. “We look forward to continuing to grow our RHOP program with Chadron State College in areas that help meet the local rural workforce needs, as well as ensuring the program advisors there have access to timely and accurate information to effectively guide students interested in our programs,” he said.