FAMU, and Crestview, FL officials, yesterday celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Durrell Peaden,Jr, Center, which officially opened on August 1, 2012 as the FAMU Rural Diversity Healthcare Center in Crestview, Fla.
The Center is named for former state Sen. Durell Peaden, J.D., M.D., (R-Crestview), who steered over of $12M into FAMU’s budget during the 2009 and 2010 legislative sessions in order to cover the start-up costs for the Crestview Education Center.
Back then, FAMU President Larry Robinson (serving as interim president) said ,“I am convinced there is no better way to mark the occasion than by highlighting our commitment to ensure citizens of this region will have access to a high-quality education in the health professions.”
The major objective of the Crestview Center then, as it is now, is to produce high-quality heath care graduates committed to serving the health care needs of citizens in the rural Florida Panhandle.
The original vision for the Center was for the campus to be an interdisciplinary campus. According to the authorizing legislation, the center will offer "instructional programs leading to the PharmD; B.S. or M.S. nursing; master of public health and doctorate of public health; and health care management, health administration, occupational therapy, and physical therapy." But in the end, only FAMU Pharmacy moved in making it the College's first degree-granting satellite location.
FAMU received $2.5 million from Public Education Capital Outlay funds in 2008 for the project titled “Rural Diversity Healthcare — Crestview” and was appropriated $7 million in 2010 to continue the FAMU Crestview Education Center project. FAMU Crestview receives a $1.5 million annual appropriation from the Florida Legislature to support the center.
The City of Crestview deeded over to FAMU an old 1937 textile factory which located in heart of the city’s downtown establish the Center.