Breaking Ground: O’Donnell Hall expansion advances HEST’s mission to Serve New Mexico

The College of HEST broke ground on a transformative expansion of O’Donnell Hall in fall 2024, ushering in a new chapter to advance health and education. The construction project is part of an $18.8 million initiative aimed at growing New Mexico’s allied health workforce and reducing health disparities across the state.

Funded by a combination of voter-approved general obligation bonds and legislative appropriations – including $15.5 million from the 2022 GO Bond and support from House Bill 153 – the expansion has been in the planning stage since 2017.

Originally built in 1968, O’Donnell Hall will gain more than 15,000 square feet of new space to accommodate the Department of Kinesiology and the Department of Communication Disorders. The expansion includes state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary labs, a high-tech anatomy classroom outfitted with anatomage tables, and additional research space to enhance hands-on learning and interdepartmental collaboration.

The ground floor of O’Donnell Hall will also be renovated to expand two of the college’s most impactful community-facing centers: the Papen-Aprendamos Autism Diagnostic Center and the Edgar R. Garrett Speech and Hearing Center. These updates will allow more students and faculty to engage in clinical training while serving individuals and families across Las Cruces and southern New Mexico.

The Speech and Hearing Center, a cornerstone of the Communication Disorders program, has provided speech-language pathology services for more than 60 years. Staffed by graduate students and certified speech-language pathologists, the center serves people of all ages in the community.

Open since 2019, the Autism Diagnostic Center remains the only center in southern New Mexico offering medical autism evaluations. It also provides evidence-based parent training and support groups – critical resources for families navigating autism diagnosis and care. The center’s interdisciplinary team specializes in autism, differential diagnosis and comorbid conditions across the lifespan.

“The College of HEST is fortunate to have world-class faculty, staff, students, and community members who are committed to a vision of advancing New Mexico’s allied health workforce and addressing disparities in healthcare access across the region. And now, thanks to the generosity of voters and their determination for a brighter future for our state, as well as the dedication of our legislative partners, HEST is blessed with world-class facilitates to make this vision a reality,” says Rick Marlatt, dean of the College of HEST.

“We are thrilled to co-author this latest chapter in O’Donnell Hall’s rich history of community engagement, and we are privileged with these new facilities to provide cutting-edge, comprehensive, public-facing services for New Mexico families. Our newly renovated spaces illustrate HEST’s statewide impact, as community members from all corners and rural areas will benefit from advanced clinical care, dynamic experiential learning, innovative extension research, and economic development partnerships pursuing a robust healthcare infrastructure.”

The Dean’s Office thanks members of ESA Construction, Inc. including Brian Head, project manager; Victoria Carrasco, Noe Molina and their teams; NMSU Project Development and Engineering members; Kim Hilburn, project manager; Robert Estrada, assistant director; Ashley Burkholder, project manager; Jose Loera, executive director; Yvonne Tellez, assistant project manager and their team; Hartman + Majewski Design Group members; Mark Wade, principal architect; Vanessa Funston, intern architect and their teams; and other NMSU units including the Office of Facilities and Services and their various units; Fire and Police departments; Auxiliary Services; Environmental Health and Safety; Academic Scheduling; and New Mexico voters and partners within HEST.

The expansion of O’Donnell Hall stands as a visible, vital investment in the future of health education at NMSU – and in the wellness of New Mexicans for generations to come. The project is expected to be completed by April 2026.