An Epicenter of Excellence

For health care professionals of the yellow and blue community, the SDSU Metro Center serves as many things:

• a haven, designed to offer support for Jackrabbit students pursuing careers in the medical field;
• a hub of collaboration for faculty and current members of the Sioux Falls metropolitan workforce;
• and, above all, a home base, offering connection to those involved with nursing, pharmacy, respiratory therapy, medical lab sciences, public health, and beyond.

The Metro Center will act as common ground across multiple health care disciplines, united under one roof and training the next generation of Jackrabbit health care professionals alongside expert faculty, existing medical workers, and the community uplifted by them all.

Until the SDSU Metro Center, the College of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions held a somewhat nomadic existence in the Sioux Falls area, confined by limited opportunities to expand the SDSU footprint. Jackrabbits studying nursing in Sioux Falls currently find an outpost at Southeast Technical Institute. The pharmacy program was once hosted at the University of South Dakota, before Avera’s generosity allowed a shift in 2023 into the building where the Metro Center is now located; pharmacy classes within the facility began that fall.

All of that – the siloed programs, the scattered Sioux Falls presence with an inconvenient commute to the city’s critical medical institutions – will change with the official opening of the SDSU Metro Center.

Department Head and Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Shanna O’Connor is looking forward to the tremendous impact the facility will have for SDSU faculty, particularly those who both teach at the university and practice in the Sioux Falls community. By Shanna’s watch, she estimates the commute from Avera from the SDSU Metro Center clocks in at eight minutes, while Sanford is similarly seven minutes away.

As a faculty member with the unique perspective of having worked in the Metro Center before, during, and eventually after its renovation, Shanna can’t overstate just how much the location in the heart of the state’s largest city and the proximity to pivotal health care facilities will impact professors like her.

Lisa Schramm is also enjoying a front row seat to the action. Assistant Director of New Student Scholarships, she’s worked for the university’s admissions team for 25 years, ever since she graduated from State. With a role that revolves around outreach and recruitment, Lisa is living proof of the difference the premier location can make; as a Sioux Falls resident who’s spent decades commuting to Brookings, the shift to the SDSU Metro Center will transform her experience, both personally and professionally. Even in the midst of the construction zone, she’s already witnessed curious passersby and potential students poking their heads into the building, curious about what’s coming. In Lisa’s eyes, that intrigue in the Metro Center is only the beginning – and day by day, she’s witnessing the project move forward to completion.

“The effort behind the scenes has been pretty incredible. This is a big lift. We’re in the building as it’s being remodeled, so we’ve seen everything as it progresses. We’ve got awesome Midwest grit going on behind closed doors to pull this off,” Lisa shares.

Though Lisa and Shanna find themselves in different departments, they have plenty of common ground at the SDSU Metro Center beyond just the neighboring offices they occupy. The two anticipate an entirely new era of recruitment and health sciences education with the addition of the facility, and we had the chance to hear what it’s like, being located at the epicenter of what comes next.

How does the SDSU Metro Center address workforce needs across multiple disciplines and for the state of South Dakota?

Shanna: We actually have been recognized with a grant for how the Metro Center is going to directly impact the workforce’s needs, specifically in health care, for respiratory therapists, nurses, and pharmacists. The facility will offer unique exposure for students to how they will work together in the medical field, as well as addressing a desperate ongoing shortage of nurses and respiratory therapists. Through a grant, the Metro Center will include a simulation center, where students will learn via simulation mannequins to start IV lines, use compressions, and essentially get practice before they’re in a practice setting. Jackrabbits studying pharmacy and respiratory therapy will also get key exposure to real-world scenarios.

How will this facility impact recruitment efforts for SDSU?

Lisa: SDSU has been recruiting in Sioux Falls since 2007, with our team speaking in front of organizations like the Boys and Girls Club or other student groups. We’ve been doing the work without having a place to really send people, aside from Brookings, and it always involved our staff going to potential students, rather than the other way around. The Metro Center allows the students to visit onsite, especially if they’re interested in health sciences. Students will have a home base, no matter where they are, because we can bring SDSU to them.

What are the benefits of housing faculty and students in pharmacy, respiratory therapy, nursing, and more, all under one roof?

Shanna: In terms of research, what we’re doing is impactful at a community level and at an individual patient level, and that’s really exciting. Students being physically in the same location will help to build interprofessional relationships. We can hold intentional meetings and important conversations that will burgeon into exciting projects. This is a space where we can convene experts and not necessarily have it be biased toward any one health system, where we can answer global, big picture problems.

What all of these disciplines have in common is that we’re all trying to affect change. We all have the expertise, and we’re building even more of it here in the Metro Center.

What sort of new opportunities will be available to Jackrabbit students because of the Metro Center?

Lisa: The word I keep coming back to is access: we are providing our Sioux Falls people – from high school and college students to graduates to donors to faculty – a place to get their questions answered, where they have access to anything and everything they need. The College of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions are collaborating a lot already on what students need, not just now, but years from now. The Metro Center benefits the programs, but it benefits our students tenfold.

If you could share a message with the donors who are helping to make this project a reality, what might you say?

Shanna: Thanks for supporting the vision of Jackrabbits in Sioux Falls. The potential for bringing the SDSU community to Sioux Falls will create a real ripple effect for the university, the city, and for the state. I’m appreciative for the people who look at that vision and see how much potential there really is.

Lisa: My message to donors is simply, thank you. I’m an SDSU employee, but I live in Sioux Falls, and bridging those two things has been extremely important to me. This project is taking a lot of resources and efforts from folks, and I get to benefit from all the generosity from donors who also see value in this community. Every little bit matters. This takes time, but it’s been so fun to be a part of it. Thanks for believing in this project and believing it’s important.