Methodist University completed a milestone in the building of the new Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, Sept. 10. Leadership from Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health broke ground on what will be the newest medical school in the country. Several prominent members of the community were in attendance, and the audience was at standing room capacity, signifying the importance of the medical school to the community.
The new $60 million facility is slated to be open for students in 2026. The school building will be located on the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center campus.
The speakers at the ceremony included MU President Dr. Stanley T. Wearden, Golden LEAF President/CEO Scott T. Hamilton, Glenn Adams, Chairman of the Cumberland County Commissioners, and Dr. Hershey Bell, inaugural Dean of the School of Medicine. One major theme was carried out among the speakers: the new School of Medicine will help to benefit the residents of the area by bringing in more physicians and allowing diversity of care.
Those living in rural areas around Cumberland County will have better access to health care, and by having the school on the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center Campus, more of the students will stay local after graduation. Sixty-seven percent of physicians who finish both medical school and residency in an area, stay in the area to practice, and that could mean big things for residents and their healthcare needs.
Dr. Toni Stewart, Vice Chair of the Cumberland County Commissioners, and board member of Cape Fear Valley Health, spoke about the needs of such a facility in our community.
“Our county’s strength lies in its diversity, with people from many different backgrounds and experiences living, working and thriving here,” she said. “The school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion means that we will be educating doctors who reflect the community they serve and improving access to care and improving trust in the health care system.”
Jimmy Keefe, Cumberland County Commissioner, and Vice Board Chair of Cape Fear Valley Health, said, “This is going to be so much more than brick and mortar. This is a cultural change for the community. It is the opportunity for us to be on the map in so many different ways as a healthcare facility. People here will have the opportunities to stay close to home and have a profession that can give back to the community and their fellow man. It will be part of our image in the state of North Carolina and the Southeast United States.”
Other speakers commented on the vision of the future of the school, and the excitement they felt over having such an institution in Fayetteville.
“I woke up this morning excited by the fact that we are going to have a medical school here. It’s going to do wonders for our community. We will train doctors, and they will go into our community and into our metropolitan area and into South Eastern North Carolina and serve people who have not been served for all these years. It is one of the most formative times of our community,” said Dr. Franklin Clark III, Chair, Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, Inc.
The Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine will be a five-story building with 200 rooms. The building will be constructed by Rodgers Builders and was designed by McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture.
“The beauty on the outside will be matched with the brains on the inside,” said Michael Nagowski, CEO, Cape Fear Valley Health.
“This is not about MU alone. Without the remarkable vision of Mike Nagowski and Cape Fear Valley Health, this could not happen,” said Dr. Wearden. “Our partnership shows that when two organizations get together and they bring trust and commitment to that relationship, great things will happen in this community ... I value the friendships we have formed and the good work we are doing together in this community. ‘Together’ is so important, because we are accomplishing so much more doing this together than we would separately.”
Dr. Hershey Bell was the last to speak.
“Today we are celebrating the groundbreaking of the nation’s newest medical school, and it isn’t just any medical school, it is OUR medical school,” he said. “Our purpose is singular, to recruit students from our region, middle schools, high schools, our community colleges, our universities, to be our medical students to populate our primary care and specialty residency and fellowship training programs who will graduate to be OUR physicians.
"[This] will be a school of the people of our region, by the people of our region, and for the people of our region. It will be the greatest honor of my career to introduce you to each and every one of [ the students] when they arrive. They won’t be just any medical students, they’ll be our medical students, our future neighbors, our future physicians.”

(Photo: Members of Methodist University, Cape Fear Valley Health and the Golden LEAF Foundation break the ground for the new Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine at the Cape Fear Valley Health Center campus on Village Dr., Sept. 10)