DEMING, N.M. (KRQE) – Western New Mexico University (WNMU) dedicated a new 8,697 square-foot center in Deming to offer health sciences education. Construction began in 2022 and will now support the local community. The building will house nursing, phlebotomy, pharmacy technician, and certified nursing assistant programs.
“Deming, like so many small communities, has a hospital that struggles to get nurses, that struggles to get technicians,” WNMU President Joseph Shepard said in a press release. “This allows individuals to stay in Deming, and grow and prosper in Deming, and contribute to the health professions.”
The school named the center after former New Mexico State Senator John Arthur Smith and his wife Janette Smith. The senator “has indeed done a tremendous amount for our state and should be honored for all his contributions,” Shepard said. “His wife has been a teacher, an educator—exactly what WNMU is known for. As a wife and a mother, she was also a supporter that allowed Senator Smith to do the wonderful things that he did. He could not have done it without her. So, it made perfect sense to honor both of them, both for their individual achievements as well as for their collective unity that created those achievements.”
The new facility cost more than $10 million and was supported by funding from the state’s legislature as well as bond funds. Federal funds also supported furnishing the building.
