Texas A&M Appoints Roderic Pettigrew as Vice Chancellor for Strategic Health Initiatives
Houston, TX. Texas A&M’s board of regents approved the appointment of Roderic Pettigrew as the System’s new vice chancellor for strategic health initiatives. Pettigrew will officially take office on June 1, where his main focus will be to expand the system’s health science research portfolio and recruit top-tier scholars.
Pettigrew’s Background
Pettigrew previously served as the founding dean of A&M’s School of Engineering Medicine, where he played a crucial role in launching a four-year school at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. This innovative program allows students to simultaneously earn a medical degree and a master’s in engineering. It is expected to graduate its second cohort of “physicianeers” on May 18.
“With the [Chancellor’s Research Initiative] CRI and [Governor’s University Research Initiative] GURI, we increased our National Academy membership from 11 to 58,” said A&M Chancellor John Sharp. “We expect Rod Pettigrew will supercharge that effort.”
New Mental Health Hospital to be Established
In a separate move, the A&M regents approved a land deal on Tuesday that clears the way for the establishment of the only state hospital for inpatient mental health care in the Panhandle. The A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVDML) is leasing a 10-acre tract in Amarillo for $1 per year to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, where the new 75-bed mental hospital is slated to be built. Groundbreaking on the project is scheduled for this summer, with the first round of patients expected to be admitted in the fall of 2027.
The land previously housed TVDML before it relocated its lab to the West Texas A&M University campus. In exchange for the land, TVDML will receive $1.3 million, the property’s appraised value in 2023, and West Texas A&M will be given property and cash equivalent to $1.3 million. The Texas Legislature had allocated $159 million to build the hospital during its 88th session.
Currently, those in need of mental health care in Amarillo are sent to facilities in Wichita Falls or further away, often facing long wait times. The new hospital is seen as a major step forward in addressing this health care dilemma.
“This deal shows when state leadership listens to what people say they need and collaborate, great things happen,” Sharp said in a statement. “Working together, the city of Amarillo, the state, and The Texas A&M University System are solving one of the Panhandle’s most vexing health care dilemmas. The real bottom line here is that Amarillo and the rest of the Panhandle get the mental health care the region needs, but never had.”