UNCP marks construction milestone with Topping Out ceremony for Clinical Sciences Building
As a 20-foot, 500-pound steel beam was lifted into place atop UNC Pembroke’s new Clinical Sciences Building Thursday, university leaders, state legislators and members of the construction team gathered to celebrate a major step forward in the $96.8 million project.
The traditional topping-out ceremony marked the placement of the building's final structural beam, bringing UNCP closer to expanding healthcare education and access across southeastern North Carolina.
“This is an important moment in the construction process,” Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings said. “It represents real progress. But, more importantly, it represents another high-water mark for UNCP and the life-changing impact this building will have on healthcare across southeastern North Carolina.”
The 74,000-square-foot facility will house UNCP’s College of Optometric Medicine, the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) program and other clinical sciences programs. The building will feature specialized classrooms, laboratories and clinical training spaces designed to prepare students for high-demand healthcare careers and expand access to care across southeastern North Carolina.
Construction is expected to last through the summer of 2028 with the facility opening for the fall 2028 semester.
The project itself is part of a broader strategy to address healthcare workforce shortages in the region. A study commissioned in 2017 reinforced the need to prepare more healthcare professionals locally — an approach Cummings summarized in five words:
“We must grow our own.”
That commitment has helped shape UNCP's expanding portfolio of health sciences programs, including the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which celebrated its first graduates in December 2025, and the newly launched family nurse practitioner program. The Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program is in its second year, while the College of Optometric Medicine is preparing to establish North Carolina's first public Doctor of Optometry program.
“For the people of southeastern North Carolina, this final beam represents hope,” Cummings said. “Hope that more healthcare professionals will choose to serve this region, hope that families will have greater access to the care they need and hope that the next generation will inherit a healthier, stronger community.”
State legislators played a pivotal role in making the project possible, with Sen. Danny Britt and Rep. Brenden Jones leading efforts to secure significant state funding. Britt was unable to attend the ceremony.
Jill Britt, a UNCP graduate and wife of Sen. Danny Britt, reflected on the years of work that brought the project to this point. She traced its beginnings to 2016, when Sen. Britt introduced legislation seeking $1 million to help establish an optometry program at UNCP. Although the initial effort encountered opposition, he continued working to advance the vision, including securing $150,000 for a study examining which health sciences programs would best serve the university and the region.
Those efforts ultimately helped secure $91 million in state funding for construction of the Clinical Sciences Building. An additional $20 million was secured in 2023 to cover startup costs for new healthcare programs, including optometry.
“What began in 2016 as an unsuccessful request for $1 million became so much more — a larger investment into the future, this university and this region,” Britt said.
“Today we are celebrating more than an academic program. We are celebrating opportunities that didn’t exist before,” she said. “We are celebrating those students who will one day walk through these doors and the careers they will build, and the families and communities whose lives will be better because of the education and healthcare opportunities that this program will provide.”
The project has also received support from the Golden LEAF Foundation, which awarded $4.8 million for diagnostic imaging and clinical training equipment.
Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of theGolden LEAF Foundation, said the investment aligns with the foundation’s mission to increase economic opportunities in North Carolina’s rural and economically distressed communities.
“Our investment in UNCP reflects that mission — expanding access to care, supporting healthcare workforces and contributing to the long-term economic vitality of the area,” Hamilton said.
The ceremony also recognized the work of the construction teams, including T.A. Loving Company based in Goldsboro.
Rob Hsin, senior client leader with Charlotte-based Jenkins Peer Architects, said that his two decades of work in the region have given his team a deep appreciation for the university and the communities it serves.
When designing the building, the goal was to create a facility that reflected the character and identity of UNCP and southeastern North Carolina.
“We wanted to give you something that was unapologetically a representative of UNCP, this region and the uniqueness of this area,” Hsin said.
He described the project as an opportunity to create something that would have a lasting impact beyond its physical structure.
“It represents the future of this community and this area. It is optimistic. It is forward-looking. It is going to create that healthcare equity, the academic equity in this area that you so strongly need,” he said.
For Aaron Thomas, president and CEO of Pembroke-based Metcon Construction, the project carries a deeply personal significance. His grandmother, Catherine Locklear, 98, is UNCP's oldest living graduate. Thomas and his mother are also graduates of the university and represent four generations of family ties to UNCP.
Thomas founded his company in Pembroke 26 years ago, believing that people should not have to leave their communities to find opportunities to build successful careers.
“Now, our young people will have the opportunity to get an education right here at home, pursue high-paying careers, raise their families here and give back to the very community that they were raised in,” he said. “Perhaps most important will be improving the health of our own people with healthcare professionals who grew up here and understand our communities and choose to call this place home.”
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