SAHS Strategic Plan: Vision 2010

The University of Texas School of Allied Health Sciences at Galveston, like countless other institutions preparing allied health practitioners dedicated to meeting the health care needs of the citizens of Texas, and those beyond the state’s borders, faces untold challenges to its mission to participate in The University of Texas Medical Branch’s (UTMB) commitment to education, research and patient care.  To name but a few, these include the state’s dynamically changing demographic portrait, ever increasing expectations at the state and national levels of the institution’s contributions to society, including innovations in health care delivery, compliance with the requirements of external accreditation and regulatory agencies, the evolution of allied health professions, increasing pressures to create mechanisms to move to financial self-sufficiency, increasing use of evidence-based practice, the impact of future technologies on teaching and learning, and competition among allied health sciences programs to attract and support a diverse body of competent students, faculty, and support staff. 

The UT School of Allied Health Sciences at Galveston celebrated 40 years of service to the citizens of Texas in 2008.  It’s achievements over that time are noteworthy:

• It was the first school of its kind west of the Mississippi River, opened in 1968;

• It has granted degrees and certificates of completion to over 5700 graduates in nearly two dozen allied health professions, approximately 85 percent of whom practice in Texas;

• It successfully seeded programs in Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy at UT El Paso, and Physician Assistant Studies at UT Edinburg;

• It is the first school at UTMB to offer a degree program to off campus students, using telecampus and Internet technology;

• It designed and implemented a significant array of projects in UTMB’s first Area Health Education Center grant project in the 1970’s, and its   involvement continues today;

• It has grown its endowment for student scholarships and awards from $78,710.00 in 1992 to over $2,202,034.00 today;

• Its young faculty practice plan has established an endowment fund to support faculty development in a wide variety of professional and academic endeavors;

• Its faculty executed an 18 month study of its academic future in 1998-1999, producing a blueprint for its expectations of future graduates.  The result was the creation of the Team IDEAL Curriculum, a course of study that parallels and compliments students’ professional studies by nurturing 12 competencies the faculty deem essential in all allied health professionals.  The Team IDEAL Curriculum is unique in the country.  Students complete capstone projects that emphasize interdisciplinary participation and capitalize on the value of service learning.  Each graduate enters his/her profession with a portfolio that documents his/her achievement of those competencies;

• Its programs have achieved an outstanding level of excellence as measured by external accreditation agencies; one has been rated as among the best in the nation in U.S. News and Word Report; and

• Its partnership with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences created a doctoral program in rehabilitation sciences, the only one of its kind in Texas and among a handful in North America.

• Six years ago the school had no endowed faculty positions.  Today it has five:  a distinguished chair, two distinguished professorships, and two professorships.  Endowments exceed $2 million.