Texas Woman’s University’s Dallas Campus celebrated the investiture of Carine M. Feyten, Ph.D., as its 11th president and second chancellor on January 20 at a reception for the invited Dallas community and those affiliated with the TWU Dallas campus, at the TWU T. Boone Pickens Institute of Health Sciences – Dallas Center, which offers programs in nursing (undergraduate completion) and graduate programs in nursing, health systems management, occupational therapy, physical therapy, communication sciences and disorders (Stroke Center) and the Executive M.B.A. (hybrid program.)
Introduced by Dr. Stephen Mansfield, chairman of the board of directors for the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce and president and CEO of the Dallas Methodist Health System, Dr. Feyten discussed the importance of the Dallas campus and the health-centered programs that align TWU with the needs of the Dallas medical community through strong strategic partnerships.
Attendees included Steve Love; Dr. Perrie Adams; Virginia Chandler Dykes; Patricia Crocker; Alred Rivas, Susan Stout, and Heather Norris of Tiffany & Co; as well as students, faculty and staff of the Dallas Campus.
Dr. Feyten became chancellor and president of TWU – the nation’s largest university primarily for women – in July 2014. She oversees the university with an annual operating budget that exceeds $236 million and serves approximately 15,000 students on campuses in Denton, Dallas, and Houston. The university employs almost 1,700 faculty and staff and has an annual economic impact of more than $529 million.
Dr. Feyten presented part of her original inaugural address, “Moving Beyond the Inflection Point: Pioneers for a New Era,” with a special focus on the Dallas campus. She discussed the optimism and determination of TWU to reach even greater heights of achievement on the Dallas, Denton and Houston campuses.
According to Dr. Feyten, one of the key strategic themes as TWU continues to move forward is development of strategic partnerships and collaborations involving K-12, community colleges, area universities, community organizations and health and business entities in the DFW area. For example, TWU is planning to launch new degree offerings in informatics, particularly health informatics. TWU has met with key health care leaders concerning this program, including members of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council as well as community college leaders and others regarding the university’s unique inter-professional approach to ensure educational and workforce needs are fulfilled at the highest level in the Metroplex. Steve Love, president and CEO of the council, attended the event.
Similarly, TWU has recently signed key partnerships with Tarrant Community College and is exploring expanded programming with Collin College, including a new collaborative, “affordable degree” option with Collin College. TWU is also anticipating increased collaboration in externally-funded medical research and education, building on existing collaborations with area universities and hospitals. An example of this is the recently funded (Summer 2014) Veterans Administration and Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) Grant, an innovative education and practice collaboration between veteran care facilities and the TWU College of Nursing that will ensure quality Veteran care now and in the future. TWU is one of only three national recipients of this grant funding.
A native of Belgium, Dr. Feyten holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Education, Second Language Acquisition from the University of South Florida; an M.A. in English, Dutch, Education; and a B.A. in Germanic Philology. She received both her M.A. and B.A. from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Dr. Feyten is an internationally recognized consultant, speaker and scholar in the field of language learning, teaching methodologies and the integration of technology in education. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. Dr. Feyten is fluent in five languages and previously served as dean of the College of Education, Health and Society at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
“The City of Dallas – especially its renowned medical community – has been a critical partner in TWU’s success for more than 50 years,” said Dr. Feyten. “I am excited about this opportunity to introduce myself to Dallas and for us to work together for a strong future that benefits the university, the medical community and the city.”
TWU is among the nation’s leading providers of nurses and other health care professionals as well being a top producer of occupational therapists. The Dallas campus is an integral and important part of TWU’s national status and rankings. U.S. News and World Report ranks TWU’s graduate programs in occupational therapy (15th nationally) and physical therapy (27th) as among the best in the nation in its 2014 Best Graduate Schools issue.
TWU is one of only five universities nationally that offers a Ph.D. in physical therapy and one of only three universities to offer a Ph.D. in occupational therapy, which is considered the most rigorous degree in the field.
TWU began its Dallas presence in 1964 with the university’s nursing program at Parkland Hospital followed with the opening of the TWU Institute of Health Sciences-Dallas Center, near Parkland Hospital, in 1966.
In 2011, The TWU T. Boone Pickens Institute of Health Sciences – Dallas Center, funded largely with a $5 million gift by Texas oilman and entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens, opened. The campus houses TWU’s Houston J. and Florence A. Doswell College of Nursing and the renowned TWU Stroke Center-Dallas. The TWU Dallas campus is comprised of an eight-story, 190,000-square-foot-building that features state-of-the-art physical and occupational therapy labs and a Mock ICU with mannequins simulating real-time conditions.
TWU’s Dallas center has an enrollment of 1,400 students with approximately 500 undergraduate students and 900 graduate students.
Founded in 1901, Texas Woman’s University is the nation’s largest university primarily for women and is a public university with an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students on campuses in Denton, Dallas and Houston. TWU offers more than 140 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs in the liberal arts, nursing, health sciences, business, the sciences and education. For more information, visit www.twu.edu or follow TWU on Twitter @TWUNews.