Whitefish couple's $101M donation funds nursing education center in Missoula

BOZEMAN — Community Medical Center has signed a letter of intent to donate land in Missoula for a new nursing education building to be built with a portion of a $101 million investment by philanthropists Mark and Robyn Jones to Montana State University.

“Community Medical Center is all about making communities healthier. There are many ways to accomplish this, and partnering with MSU’s nursing college will improve the health and wellness of our community today and well into the future,” said Bob Gomes, CEO of Community Medical Center.

In 2021, Mark and Robyn Jones announced a philanthropic investment of $101 million to Montana State University for the construction of new, larger, state-of-the-art educational facilities on the five campuses of its nursing college in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula. This investment provides the first opportunity to have university-owned facilities in Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula, which currently use leased facilities.

MSU’s nursing college, now named the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing, provides baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral programs for nursing students but has been unable to significantly increase its number of graduates due to limited space. With the Joneses’ philanthropic investment providing new facilities in five cities across the state, the college aims to fill the state’s projected shortfall of nurses by 2030.

“Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing relies on our trusted partners across the state, like Community Medical Center, to help fulfill our mission of providing important clinical training for our nursing students,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “We are extremely grateful to Community Medical Center for its generous donation and continued partnership.”

Community Medical Center will provide land located on Fort Missoula Road, adjacent to the hospital campus, for the new 20,000-square foot nursing education building.

Mark and Robyn Jones are the founders of Goosehead Insurance Inc., which has offices across the nation. Founded in 2003 by Robyn Jones, Goosehead now has more than 1,300 offices in the U.S., with a market capitalization of $2.2 billion.

The Joneses, who have a home in Whitefish, have said their intention with the $101 million is to help address one of the most defining challenges of our time: access to health care, particularly for residents of rural and frontier communities, where there is low population and high geographic remoteness.

The Joneses’ philanthropic investment — the largest ever given to a college of nursing at the time, as well as the largest private gift in the history of the state of Montana — will:

Provide funding for new, university-owned facilities at each of the MSU College of Nursing’s five campuses in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula. Equipped with modern classrooms and state-of-the-art simulation labs, nursing students will hone their critical thinking and practice skills in these new facilities.

Establish five endowed faculty professorships: These endowed professorships will position MSU to attract top faculty talent during a nationwide nursing faculty shortage.

Develop an endowed scholarship fund that will allow MSU’s nursing college to keep the cost of nursing education affordable for students.

Create Montana’s only certified nurse midwifery program preparing doctoral level nurses who will significantly increase the number of specialized maternal health care providers capable and willing to provide services to rural and remote communities in Montana.

Community Medical Center is a health system comprising adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. It is located in Missoula and is part of Lifepoint Health and Billings Clinic. Community Medical Center is proud to be the only hospital in Montana that has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of approval for Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care (ACPC), Western Montana’s only chest pain accredited hospital and its Cancer Center is accredited by the Commission on Cancer for advanced clinical care, scientific research and technological inventions. For more information about Community Medical Center, call 406-728-4100 or visit CommunityMed.org. For more information about Lifepoint Health, visit LifepointHealth.net.

The Community Medical Center land donation will go before the Montana Board of Regents of the Montana University System for approval.

Founded in 1937, Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing offers bachelor’s, accelerated bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral-level nursing education to produce nurses, nurse leaders, nurse educators and nurse practitioners for Montana. Great Falls was the first location where upper division, clinical nursing education was offered, followed by the establishment of the Billings nursing campus in 1939, Missoula campus in 1976, and Kalispell campus in 2002. While nursing majors have taken prerequisite courses in Bozeman at MSU since 1937, upper division or clinical nursing education was first offered at the Bozeman campus location in 2004.

MSU is the largest producer of registered nurses in Montana and is the sole provider of doctoral nurse practitioner education in the state. More information is available at montana.edu/nursing.