Keel unveils new strategic plan during State of University address

Now that Augusta University is looking toward a return to normal following a year-long battle against COVID-19, President Brooks A. Keel, PhD, is ready to turn his focus back to growth on campus, including adding both students and faculty.

During his virtual State of the University address April 16, Keel said his goal is to increase enrollment from 9,600 — this year’s enrollment — to 16,000 students and a ranking in the top six largest medical schools in the country by the year 2030.

“What I have come up with is perhaps the most innovative and exciting program in research in the history of this university,” he said.

Keel has pledged to invest $15 million to recruit between 15 and 20 new faculty members across six colleges to focus on researching Inflamma-Aging and Brain Aging, which focuses on aging as a disease process and studies ways to prevent these processes.

The new faculty members will occupy the newly renovated fourth floor of the new College of Science and Mathematics building.

Read more about this initiative in The Augusta Chronicle.