Loyola University Chicago has received a $20 million gift from board chair Robert Parkinson and his wife, Elizabeth, in support of a new school of health sciences and public health, Crain's Chicago Business reports.  

To be named the Parkinson School of Health Sciences & Public Health, the school will absorb some of Loyola's existing health degree programs and ultimately add sixteen programs, including a bachelor's of science in public health sciences and master's degrees in health informatics and exercise science. Degree programs will open in the fall, with courses offered on all three of Loyola's campuses and through increased use of hybrid on-site/online teaching. A new building is expected to be built on the university's suburban Maywood campus, which also will house a Center for Health Innovation & Entrepreneurship. 

About 16 percent of Loyola's seventeen thousand undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in health science programs, including many at the affiliated Trinity Health teaching hospital system in Maywood known as Loyola Medicine. In 2011, Loyola sold the hospital to Trinity, which then put $75 million toward development of the Center for Translational Research & Education on the Maywood campus. 

"From the employer's side, there's great demand [for healthcare professionals], not just in current needs but looking to the future," said Loyola University Chicago president Jo Ann Rooney. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in the healthcare sector are projected to grow 18 percent between 2016 and 2026, or an additional 2.4 million positions, while the National Center for Education Statistics reports that the number of students seeking health-related bachelor's and master's degrees more than doubled between 2006 and 2016.

Parkinson, the retired chair and CEO of Baxter International and former president and chief operating officer of Abbott Laboratories, served as dean of Loyola's Quinlan School of Business from 2002 to 2004. He and his wife, both Loyola alumni, have supported an array of projects and initiatives, including service on the Quinlan School of Business Board of Advisors, the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Student Life, and the Stritch School of Medicine Annual Award Dinner Committee.

"Bob and I believe that access to quality health care is a right," said Elizabeth Parkinson, "and good health is the foundation for strong families, individuals, and communities."