Texas Woman’s University Opens New $107M Health Sciences Center » Dallas Innovates

TWU Health Sciences Center Building [Photo: TWU]

Texas Woman’s University cut the ribbon last Thursday on its $107 million new Health Science Center, a state-of-the art, multidisciplinary academic and community health facility designed to advance interprofessional education, expand the university’s healthcare training capacity, and bolster the quality and quantity of the professional healthcare pipeline in Texas.

The new building—made possible in part by $100 million in state funding—represents “a major milestone” for TWU as it celebrates its 125th anniversary, the university said. Modeled on a collaborative “teach, train and treat” philosophy, the new facility in Denton will also support increased access to care in rural and underserved communities in and around North Texas.

A ribbon-cutting was held last Thursday for TWU’s new $107 million Health Sciences Center. [Photo: TWU]

The 136,000-square-foot facility will offer a place for multiple healthcare disciplines across TWU—including nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, and counseling and family therapy. By housing all these programs under one roof, the TWU Health Sciences Center aims to support “team-based education” that mirrors real-world healthcare.

At the ribbon-cutting, TWU Chancellor Carine Feyten said the new building “represents far more than the completion of a construction project. It’s a powerful expression of who we are as an institution and what we believe higher education can and should do.”

“This center was intentionally designed around collaboration, not silos—around the idea that the most pressing health challenges of our time are solved not in isolation, but together,” she added.

Advanced simulation labs, experiential learning, and more

The new facility features AI-integrated simulation, including mixed-reality rooms and VR headsets, along with virtual environments developed in collaboration with TWU computer science faculty to support clinical, social, and cognitive training.

Specialized teaching spaces include an 11-tank anatomy cadaver lab, a fully functioning home-environment lab shared across disciplines, pediatric training labs, and high-tech motion-capture rooms where students can record, review, and reflect on their learning in real time, TWU said.

“At Texas Woman’s, we’re deeply committed to innovation, to compassion, and to meaningful community impact,” Feyten said.

Adding new graduates for Texas’ healthcare workforce

The new Health Sciences Center also enables the university to extend its impact on Texas’ professional healthcare pipeline, with an anticipated 30% increase in healthcare graduates over the next decade—including an estimated 240additional nursing professionals and 55 additional physical therapy professionals added to the workforce each year.

The additional space and capabilities will allow TWU to educate more students in high-demand healthcare fields within a collaborative, interprofessional environment, the university said, preparing them to deliver “total patient-centered care.”

“This is a space built with purpose,” Feyten said at the opening. “A space designed to transform how health professionals learn—and, ultimately, how they serve our communities across North Texas and beyond.”