Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $1.5 million grant to the Northern Wyoming Community College District (NWCCD) in Sheridan, Wyoming, to improve and expand Northern Wyoming Community College’s Health Sciences Center. The new Center will train students for healthcare jobs with the Indian Health Services as well as private healthcare facilities. The EDA grant, to be located near a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Opportunity Zone, will be matched with more than $7 million in state and local funds.
“Ensuring that businesses have the trained workforce they need to grow and thrive in and near Opportunity Zones is a major focus of the Trump administration,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Renovating NWCCD’s Health Sciences Center will help fill more than 1,400 current and anticipated medical positions in Wyoming.”
“This project will provide a state-of-the-art facility to house NWCCD training programs for nursing, certified nursing assistance, massage therapy, and dental hygiene,” said Dana Gartzke, Performing the Delegated Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “In addition, establishing the college’s critical simulation lab near an Opportunity Zone will attract investment into an area of great need.”
The funding announced today will help catalyze private investment in a nearby Opportunity Zone. Created by President Donald J. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Opportunity Zones are spurring economic development in economically-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an Investment Priority, which increases the number of catalytic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. To learn more about the Commerce Department’s work in Opportunity Zones, please visit EDA’s Opportunity Zones webpage. To learn more about the Opportunity Zone program, see the Opportunity Now resources page here.
About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.