On Wednesday, November 3, university donors and members of the Grand Valley community gathered at the dedication of the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health (DCIH). More than 700 donors helped make this most recent addition to the Health Campus expansion a reality. 

The university especially recognizes the support of our leadership donors, including these top donors whose gifts inspired so many to help bring this project to fruition.

Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation

Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation

David and Joyce Hecht

J.C. and Tammy Huizenga

John and Nancy Kennedy

Charles W. Loosemore Foundation

The Meijer Foundation

Jack Miller

Tim and Barbie Schowalter

Grand Valley State University President, Philomena V. Mantella, has been influential in the development of Grand Valley’s Health Campus. She spoke to guests about the future of health education at Grand Valley and how the university will continue to educate the next generation of innovative health professionals.

“Today we celebrate our partnership with the community and the state to address the ever-changing needs of health care education and talent development at a critical time in our nation’s history,” said Mantella. “Because of your support, we can better prepare our students, increase the number of graduates, and keep up with the many programmatic needs of the health care system.”

Dan and Pamella DeVos have been involved with Grand Valley for more than 30 years. Dan and Pamella currently serve as vice-chairs of the Grand Valley University Foundation and have previously served as foundation directors. As the lead donors for DCIH, they are continuing the DeVos family’s legacy of providing transformative support for health and education in our region.

After remarks from President Mantella, Pamella thanked guests and donors while discussing her experience working on the project.

“From the beginning, Dan and I have supported and taken interest in many aspects of this new Grand Valley building,” she said. "It was my privilege to be a part of the art advisory committee. As a committee, we felt art should be accessible to anyone and everyone. We intentionally selected pieces we believed would resonate with students and provide them with inspiration in their learning journeys.”

Dan spoke about Grand Valley’s impact on the community and the future moving forward. 

“We felt drawn to the opportunity to help Grand Valley bring even more high-caliber talent to the region and to continue the partnership between area health systems and the university,” he said. “We were also captivated by the idea of interprofessional teams, which are clearly the future of health care.”

State Representative David LaGrand represented the State of Michigan at the event. The state helped fund the project, allowing Grand Valley to better meet statewide demand for talent. LaGrand shared  how the addition of this building will impact West Michigan and the world.

“This is going to be good for West Michigan, but ideas don’t have geography and they don’t have boundaries,” said LaGrand. “So good ideas that come out of this type of collaboration are going to be good for the planet.”

DCIH serves as a home to Grand Valley’s 20+ health science programs and offers state-of-the-art learning opportunities for its students. The simulation center, led by Katie Branch, is one of the largest interprofessional centers in the State of Michigan. Through simulation, students are able to learn in a real-world environment and review their experiences before going into the health field.

“Since this building opened in May, we have fielded calls for tours from institutions throughout the country,” said Branch. “Our simulation center’s unique design contains state-of-the-art teaching and learning resources that no other institution of higher education has in the country.”

Over 400 works of art from Grand Valley’s collection reside in DCIH. The Director of Galleries and Collections, Nathan Kemler, shared how the university selected pieces with the intention to enhance and support interprofessional team environments and encourage cross-disciplinary innovation and collaboration. 

“Community, empathy, and innovation were some of the central themes identified through the art committees’ conversations for this building,” said Kemler. “It was important to talk about health from a holistic perspective. From the Flint water crisis and teen homelessness to gender identity and systemic racism; these stories provide important perspectives that help our learners grow in empathy and understanding of mental and physical health.”

More than 400 guests attended the dedication ceremony and were invited to attend a reception followed by a self-guided tour of the new facility. 
 

 

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