TACOMA, Wash. - University of Puget Sound announced today that it has received a $1 million commitment from Holly and Eric Dillon of Mercer Island toward the design and construction of a new Center for Health Sciences.
"We are grateful to Holly and Eric for their ongoing support of Puget Sound and significant contribution to this key strategic priority for the university," says President Ronald R. Thomas. "The Center for Health Sciences will be unlike any other health sciences facility at any other liberal arts college in the nation. It will build upon Puget Sound's tradition of interdisciplinary innovation, and provide a fully integrated clinical, teaching, and research facility."
The Center for Health Science is both the centerpiece for Puget Sound's 20-year master plan for campus development and for the university's academic strategic plan. The venue will combine in one facility undergraduate research and teaching disciplines of exercise science and psychology with graduate clinical and research studies in occupational and physical therapy. The Center will also provide resources for the university's occupational and physical therapy clinics, which serve more than 300 patients annually with free health care services.
"My husband and I are excited to support the Center for Health Sciences, because we believe it's an important step toward Puget Sound's broader vision of being one of the premier educational experiences in the nation," says Holly Dillon '84, J.D. '88. "This new state-of-the-art facility will be the hub for the university's already robust academic programs. The entire Northwest community will benefit as it will be a place where teaching, learning, and practicing will happen interactively." Emerging out of the university's comprehensive master plan, the Center is being designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson of Seattle and is expected to begin construction in 2009. It will be located at the south end of campus along North 11th Street, with convenient access for clinic patients served by students in the occupational and physical therapy programs. Combined with the Commencement Walk landscape element in the university's master plan, it will also knit together the north and south sectors of campus in a unified campus plan.
Holly Sabelhaus Dillon earned a bachelor of arts in politics and government from the University of Puget Sound in 1984, and a law degree in 1988. With her husband Eric, a founding partner of Silver Creek Capital Management, LLC, she has been a longtime advocate for the university. The couple founded the Hollis and Eric Dillon Endowed Scholarship Fund in June 2004 and contributed to the building of the science laboratory building, Harned Hall, which opened in the fall of 2006. She has been a member of the University of Puget Sound's Board of Trustees since 2000 and served as a member of the National Alumni Board from 1992 - 96.
Editor's Note: A print-quality photo of Holly and Eric Dillon is available on the University of Puget Sound Web site at www.ups.edu/pressphotos.xml.