Announcing the Brooks College of Health at UNF

Contact: Joanna Norris
Assistant Director
Media Relations and Events
(904) 620-2102





The University of North Florida is pleased to announce today a $3.6 million gift given to the College of Health by Brooks Rehabilitation. This generous donation by Brooks will be matched by the State of Florida at 100 percent, bringing the total to $7.2 million. The contribution will allow UNF to endow physical therapy and nursing faculty positions, expand teaching and research opportunities and establish a distinguished professorship. This gift, combined with a 1996 gift of $1.4 million, results in the christening of the College as the Brooks College of Health.

“This latest gift enhances our College of Health program and allows UNF to attract the best students and faculty,” said UNF President John A. Delaney. “We are extremely grateful for our partnership with Brooks Rehabilitation.”

Brooks Rehabilitation has a long-standing commitment to advancing health care in the community. For many years, Brooks has provided leadership as a non-profit organization with the unique mission of advancing health care for the care and prevention of disabilities. In 1970, J. Brooks Brown, M.D., began what has become the most comprehensive rehabilitation system in North Florida. Brooks Rehabilitation’s 143-bed acute physical rehab hospital is the only one of its kind in the region, working in collaboration with an extensive network of outpatient centers and a cutting-edge research facility.

Thanks to its standing as a non-profit entity, Brooks is able to invest excess revenues into community health care, services and programs. To achieve the goals of advancing rehabilitation care, research, prevention and education in the area, Brooks has identified UNF as a key partner. UNF is the largest university in the region providing a wide array of health care educational programs. Brooks realizes the importance of collaborating with UNF to meet the growing demands for physical therapy and nursing care. With an aging population, the increasing shortage of professionals in both of these fields will be addressed by this partnership.

“Brooks and UNF share a vision for continuously improving the Jacksonville health care system for the benefit of the citizens of our community. We have long been an active supporter and sponsor of UNF through shared leadership, joint education and research programs, and scholarship funding for students,” said Brooks President and CEO Doug Baer. “We are very excited to be taking both our partnership and the College of Health to the next level through this gift.”

Physical therapy is one of the fastest-growing careers in Northeast Florida but still lacks qualified candidates, according to a fall 2005 survey by WorkSource, a company operated by First Coast Workforce Development, Inc. that is responsible for providing a trained workforce to employers in Northeast Florida. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis reports that by the year 2020 there will be 61,000 fewer nurses in Florida. This nursing shortage will have an increasingly negative impact on the quality and availability of health care.

UNF is meeting these challenges. The undergraduate School of Nursing program was chosen to be UNF’s first flagship program, which identifies it as a program destined to achieve national stature. Due to previous gifts from Brooks and other health care partners, UNF has increased its nursing enrollment from 130 to 230 students in the last five years.

The Brooks College of Health, which enrolls 1,000 students annually, currently offers a full complement of degree programs and specialized certifications in athletic training, community and public health, geriatric management, health administration, nursing, nutrition, physical therapy and rehabilitation counseling. An integral part of each of these outstanding programs is the emphasis on quality time in clinical settings, the use of the most up-to-date technologies, innovative faculty and student research, and the opportunity for hands-on-learning experiences and internships. The College continues to add and modify programs to stay current with community needs and the changing health care landscape.


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