Media

September 20, 2013

Doña Ana County, NM (KDBC) — The Hunt Family Foundation, founded by Woody and Gayle Hunt from El Paso has awarded a grant for $100,000 for the Dona Ana Community College Scholarship Program.

The scholarship program is administered by the NMSU Foundation./p>

The $100,000 will be matched with earnings from the John Wynne scholarship endowment at the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico./p>

"We believe at the Hunt Family Foundation that it is extremely important to partner and support our New Mexico neighbors," Josh Hunt from the Hunt Family Foundation said./p>

This scholarship is to benefit the students from Doña Ana County, in particular high school graduates from the Gadsden Independent School District, with a declared major in Business, Information Systems, Health and Public Services, or Technical Studies./p>

A check presentation and reception will take place on Monday, September 23 at 10:15am at Dona Ana Community College – Gadsden Center (Commons Area), 1700 East O'Hara Road./p>

For more information please contact Kristi Martin, Development Officer, Dona Ana Community College (575) 528-7059

August 21, 2013

One can look at the new building at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center as the piece that makes it all fit -- the Medical Center of the Americas concept, that is.

The Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing connects the classroom to the clinical; it combines two academic disciplines that are our medical goal of being the leader in border-related health care and health research. It's a 34,000 square foot space that includes labs, classrooms and collaborative learning between medical students, nursing students and researchers. The dean is Jeanne Novotny.

Construction has begun across from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in Central El Paso and adjacent to both University Medical Center and the El Paso Children's Hospital. The scheduled completion date is November 2014.

Besides the long-planned-for classroom and research space, the Health Sciences Center will produce much-needed nurses. There is a nationwide shortage of nurses. And in five years, it's hoped there will be 600 nursing students enrolled, along with 400 medical students. El Paso can be a big help to the nursing shortage, especially since the University of Texas at El Paso also graduates skilled professionals in that field.

Seed money for the nursing school, amounting to $10 million, came from the local Hunt Family Foundation. Presently the nursing school is located in a leased building near Downtown on Yandell. The Gayle Greve Hunt school/research facility has long been seen as the piece that makes the Health Sciences Center whole. It's the building sought after for several years. The first big step was accreditation of the four-year Foster School of Medicine. And recently the Texas Legislature granted the Health Sciences Center stand-alone status as its own university. It's no longer a satellite of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, much like UTEP is a stand-alone in the University of Texas System.

Novotny makes a good point in that the nursing school is not only close to the medical school on its campus, but it's right across the street from the expanding UMC and the new children's hospital. "We will be close to the medical school and the Biomedical Graduate Program, so we'll be able to do a lot of interdisciplinary work, which is critical for health care in the 21st century," she said.

The focus will remain on researching preventive methods, along with care, for border-related diseases, one of which is our high rate of diabetes. The goal is to get research business, along with the pharmaceutical industry, to set up on the perimeters of the Texas Tech/UMC campuses. One such research building has been announced, MCA Tech Park Inc. It's a subsidiary of the MCA Foundation. This four-story biomedical innovation center got its seed money from local businessman Jack Cardwell. Ground breaking for the Cardwell Collaborative is slated for the first half of 2014.

The MCA concept began some 20 years ago. And as each year passes, more and more elements are being added. This week, it's construction of the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing, and next year it's the Cardwell Collaborative.

August 19, 2013

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing (GGHSON) Monday broke ground on a new building at the corner of N. Concepcion Street and Alberta Avenue in El Paso.

"With the generous support of the El Paso community, TTUHSC at El Paso has been instrumental in transforming health care along the border through its roles in education, research and patient care," said Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance.

The 34,000-square-foot facility, which will be across from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Medical Education Building, includes a high-tech environment for faculty and students; 12,000 square feet of simulation labs; four classrooms; and collaborative learning spaces.

Right now, the nursing school operates out of a leased building at 415 E. Yandell Drive, offering students a Traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program or an alternate-entry, 12-month Second Degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program.

The GGHSON responded to a severe nursing shortage in the greater El Paso region by admitting its first class of Traditional BSN students in 2011. The school now has a total of 116 students and 13 faculty members, and GGHSON Founding Dean Jeanne Novotny, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, says that number is expected to grow.

"We are dedicated to expanding the quality and size of the faculty, launching new degree programs and positioning the school as a leader in academic nursing," Novotny said. "We will expand student enrollment by opening access to a world-class nursing education for a diverse, highly competitive student body that will focus on the health care needs of the borderland."

The GGHSON was established through a donation from the Hunt Family Foundation in 2010.

The school was named the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing in honor of Gayle, the wife of El Paso businessman and philanthropist Woody Hunt.

Administrators anticipate the school will grow to 300 students in five years to counteract the long-term nursing shortage in the medically underserved El Paso region.

September 12, 2012

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin alumnus and El Paso native Woody L. Hunt has pledged $1 million in a challenge grant to the Business Honors Program (BHP) at the McCombs School of Business that will help the program attract more top students from his home region.

Hunt earned his BBA in the honors program in 1966. The gift will be officially announced at a University of Texas recruiting event Tuesday, Sept. 18, in El Paso.

The gift is set up as a challenge grant that, once funded, will support the new Woody L. Hunt Endowed Excellence Fund for the expansion of BHP student programs, as well as a presidential scholarship aimed at recruiting top students from the El Paso/Las Cruces/Juarez area. The challenge: In order to receive the gift, the McCombs School of Business must raise an additional $2 million over five years.

"We are so grateful for the generosity of Mr. Hunt and the Hunt Family Foundation," said Robert Prentice, faculty director of the Business Honors Program. "These funds and those that we will be raising from alumni and friends of the program will be crucial to the long-term growth and success of the program."

Hunt said that he would like his gift to fund scholarships to students from the Paso del Norte area – which encompasses El Paso, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico – because the area is "not as competitive as it should be" despite its strengths. "My hope here is to try to improve the competitiveness of our region. The expectations would be that some of those students will come back and contribute to the community."

The Business Honors Program, started in 1960, is both a program and a major at McCombs. The curriculum is modeled after the MBA curriculum, giving its 500 students access to smaller classes taught using the case-based model of instruction. The program graduates about 120 students each year.

"I was one of the early participants in BHP and have always connected my success going forward with that educational experience," said Hunt, who is chairman and CEO of Hunt Companies Inc. Founded in 1947, the company is involved in investment, real estate development and construction.

For more information, contact: Renee Hopkins, Red McCombs School of Business, 512 471 6746; erin.huddleston@mccombs.utexas.edu, 512-471-2843

June 22, 2012

Fifteen young El Pasoans were honored Thursday at the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce annual scholarship banquet.

The scholarships are given by the Hispanic chamber's Commerce Education Foundation. Joshua Hunt, president of Hunt Family Foundation, spoke.

The foundation was created to assist El Paso high-school seniors with their postsecondary education.

Besides giving scholarships, the foundation's goal is to increase the rate of El Paso students earning a college degree.

Since its inception in 1993, the scholarship fund has assisted more than 100 students.

April 5, 2012

El Paso Children's Hospital on Wednesday received a million more reasons to celebrate.

The Hunt Family Foundation donated $1 million in the form of a challenge grant to the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit. The grant will match every $2 donated with $1 up to $1 million.

In appreciation, the 10th floor was renamed the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

"The bricks and mortar are a great start, but it's these kinds of donations that are going to move the hospital forward," Children's Hospital Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Duncan said during the unveiling ceremony Wednesday.

The 225,000-square-foot nonprofit hospital, which opened Feb. 14, features 122 private pediatric rooms and so far has recruited about 25 pediatric subspecialists.

The pediatric intensive care unit has 22 beds and has seen from four to 10 patients at a time since its opening, Duncan said. He added that the unit will be able to handle more patients in the coming months as specialty nurses and other health-care staff are recruited.

"Our focus has been giving to improve the quality of life in El Paso and the region, and this certainly falls within that realm," said Woody Hunt, chairman of the Hunt Family Foundation. "We have to have a more competitive quality of life, and we think this is an important part of that."

Hunt said the $1 million challenge grant is an important donation for the health of the region's children, but he noted that the foundation is strategic in its giving. By donating to the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, he said, the hospital can more easily recruit highly skilled, highly educated people who will in turn give back to the community and contribute to its economic development.

The Hunt Family Foundation supports a number of organizations across El Paso, including those in health care, education, the arts and other quality-of-life and economic development initiatives.

Most recently, the foundation awarded $10 million to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center to create a school of nursing; $5 million to the University of Texas at El Paso for the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness; $1 million to El Paso Community College for student scholarships; and $1.2 million to the YWCA El Paso del Norte Region for its "Be-Y Miracles Happen" capital campaign.

"Thank you for your leadership, thank you for your vision and thank you from the bottom of our hearts," said Dennece Knight, executive director of the University Medical Center Foundation, which supports UMC, the Children's Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network. "Without these gifts we wouldn't be able to move these programs along so quickly."

For others, however, the Hunts' philanthropy is more personal.

"We say kudos to you," said Olatunde Adeoye, whose 7-month-old daughter, Oluwatofunmi, has had four surgeries since being born with a number of health problems. The baby is now a patient in the hospital's pediatric ICU.

"If it were not for your donation," Adeoye told the Hunts, "we might not be able to continue celebrating the life and health of our daughter."

Adeoye and his wife, Olabisi, are originally from Nigeria and have lived in El Paso for eight years. Their ill daughter has a healthy twin sister, Oluwatoniloba. The couple also have 3-year-old twins.

"It's beautiful and very much needed," Adeoye said about the children's hospital and the pediatric ICU. "We are very grateful for it."

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at cramirez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.

March 9, 2012

The El Paso Zoo opened its new Hunt Family Desert Spring attraction.

The water attraction features dancing water, gushers, spray tunnels and tower sprays.

A donation by the Hunt Family Foundation to the El Paso Zoological Society helped make the attraction a reality.

On Thursday, foundation Chairman Woody L. Hunt and foundation President Joshua W. Hunt attended the event to cut a ribbon on the new fountain.