FLORENCE – Officials with the University of North Alabama and the Huntsville Hospital Health System announced that they will team up to form a partnership.
An official signing of a Learning Agreement took place recently at Huntsville Hospital.
According to the agreement, Huntsville Hospital Health System will be considered a “preferred educational partner.” As such, UNA will offer Huntsville Hospital Health System full-time employees a scholarship if they’re accepted into any online or traditional graduate, or undergraduate program.
Additionally, dependents of Huntsville Hospital Health System full-time employees will also receive a scholarship to any online or traditional undergraduate program.
“Once again, UNA is partnering with our community to make education more accessible,” said UNA President Ken Kitts. “We appreciate the cooperation that makes this agreement possible and look forward to welcoming employees of the Huntsville Hospital Health System into our classes and academic programs.”
Huntsville Hospital Health System is the largest health care system in North Alabama and includes Helen Keller Hospital in Tuscumbia.
“We’re very excited about this new relationship between our Health System and the University of North Alabama,” said David Spillers, CEO of Huntsville Hospital Health System. “With 15,000 employees working in communities across the Tennessee Valley region, the staff of our Health System and their dependents will benefit greatly from UNA’s generosity for many years to come. We thank the UNA Board and leadership for making this wonderful opportunity available to us.”
The learning agreement is comprehensive; focusing on online nursing and health professions programs primarily, but will also include all online and face-to-face UNA programs.
Dr. Ross Alexander, vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at UNA, said the agreement shows UNA’s commitment to educating the workforce of Alabama.
“We’re committed to supporting health care providers and their families,” said Alexander. “That’s why we extremely pleased to partner with Huntsville Hospital Health System on our largest and most comprehensive learning agreement to date.”
The University has been establishing partnerships with many local entities to help provide more educational opportunities, including recent agreements with the North Alabama Medical Center, Helen Keller Hospital, the City of Florence, Lauderdale County, Colbert County, the City of Tuscumbia and International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC).
