MTSU summer ’24 magazine examines university impact on region’s health care services

Collage of MTSU magazine cover and inside pages and images

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee is a perfect microcosm of the American health care system. There’s metro Nashville, with its $67 billion health care industry — and then Nashville’s 13-county metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, with its vast health care deserts.

The latest edition of MTSU magazine spotlights Middle Tennessee State University’s large role in supplying a skilled workforce to the region’s health care industry.

MTSU offers dozens of degree programs to fill every niche in that massive ecosystem, from corporate suites to rural clinics. Blue Raiders are doing lifesaving work both on the front lines and behind the scenes in medical labs, business startups, industrial settings and corner offices.

A flip-page version of the magazine is available by clicking on the cover image.

Other stories in the current edition include:

The summer 2024 edition of MTSU magazine takes a look at the university’s oft-overlooked impact on the region’s health care industry. Click the image to access an electronic pdf version of the magazine. (Cover photo illustration by MTSU Creative and Visual Services)

• An interview with President Sidney A. McPhee discussing a statewide effort to increase public awareness about the value of a four-year degree from a Tennessee public university.

• A profile of Mike Williams, partner in Tennessee Distilling, a former member of the Tennessee General Assembly, and also a former

MTSU cheerleader and student government president (class of 1981, Economics), who said he values the skill set MTSU Fermentation Science graduates so much that his company recently established a new endowed professorship in fermentation science and has begun reimbursing company distillers who decide to pursue

the MTSU master’s degree.

• A story detailing how MTSU grant dollars are helping one Tennessee county’s battle against an insidious disease — and a lethal stigma — offering hope for recovering opioid addicts.

• Class Notes — updates on the status of MTSU alumni around the globe.

Printed copies of MTSU magazine are distributed twice annually to approximately 125,000 alumni readers. Additional copies of the alumni-and-friends publication are distributed to interested stakeholders. A web-only, flip version of the entire magazine is available here.

— Drew Ruble (Drew.Ruble@mtsu.edu)