Dr. Lange Nominated for El Pasoan of the Year
Illustration by Nacho Garcia.
Courtesy of El Paso Inc.
Each year, El Paso Inc. recognizes outstanding El Pasoans who have gone above and beyond their job descriptions to make a difference in the community. In this issue, we proudly announce the 2021 nominees.
Since 1996, El Paso Inc. has asked readers and past honorees to nominate people, and sometimes groups and organizations, who are making El Paso a better place. Our aim is to celebrate achievements that benefit the community and, hopefully, encourage others to follow.
As usual, this year’s nominees are making their mark in a host of different industries, from art to housing and economic development to health care.
The 2021 El Pasoan of the Year and Community Spirit Award honoree will be revealed in our Dec. 26 issue. And they will be celebrated at a later event.
Dr. Richard Lange – President, TTUHSC El Paso
El Paso’s Medical Center of the Americas has been transformed since the arrival in 2017 of Dr. Richard Lange as president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.
Lange has overseen the expansion of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and the construction and opening in September of the $83 million, five-story Medical Sciences Building II, which houses the new Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine, as well as research labs and more classrooms.
The number of graduates from the medical school has gone from 40 when the school opened in 2009 to more than 500 so far, a good number of whom stay in El Paso, a seriously underserved community when it comes to doctors, after they finish their residency.
Four months ago, the dental school accepted its first class, becoming the first dental school on the border, the fourth in Texas and the state’s first new dental school in nearly 50 years.
As with the medical school, the new dental school will, over time, steadily increase the number of dentists in El Paso, which is significantly underserved.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech’s 10-year-old Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing in El Paso continues to turn out badly needed graduates, 78 in August, providing them – mostly El Pasoans – with great jobs and filling great needs in these difficult times for medical personnel.
All of that has been on Lange’s watch.