What To Expect From SFA’s Upcoming College Of Health Professions

It's no secret that Stephen F. Austin State University is making a name for itself not just in Nacogdoches, not just in Deep East Texas, but all over. You can see their billboards all over the state with the "Lumberjacks Make Great..." slogan. Not to mention the athletics department, and the updating of the campus itself with the new Campus Master Plan that was approved last year. However, there are more huge changes coming up, including one that is set to take place on July 1st.

SFA is Launching Its College of Health Professions

In December of 2025 the announcement was made that SFA would be launching the College of Health Professions. According to the SFA website, "The College of Health Professions will unite programs in nursing, psychology, kinesiology, athletic training, public health, dietetics and nutritional sciences, counseling, social work, speech-language pathology and family sciences, creating SFA's largest and most interdisciplinary unit."

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You see, the university already had all of these programs in place, but they were under different colleges within the university. This will bring them all together under one college.

On May 21st, another huge step was taken toward becoming reality, when it was announced via an SFA press release that an inaugural dean - Dr. Elisabeth Ploran - had been selected to lead the new college. She will begin in July when the new college launches.

As an alumnus of SFA, this sounds like great news to me. In the academic world, if you aren't moving forward, you aren't effective. This change, along with all of the others that are in store for SFA, just shows that SFA is moving forward. Axe 'em Jacks!