Mega Doctor News
McALLEN, Texas — It’s important to Leann Horsley, PhD, dean of the Texas A&M University College of Nursing, that the students and region know: The program is the same one Aggies studying in Bryan-College Station have come to trust and leverage when it’s time to enter the health care workforce.
“The same curriculum, the same rigor around finding the best faculty and clinical partners and the same diploma—and Aggie Ring—upon graduation,” Horsley said. “We just now offer it in the Valley so these aspiring nurses can study close to home.”
Horsley is referring to the college’s expansion in the Rio Grande Valley, which includes an in-person option for its popular and competitive traditional Bachelor of Science (BSN) degree delivered at the Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen (HECM).
The inaugural cohort of 25 students starts on Jan. 12 at HECM, which anchors the scenic Tres Lagos development on the north side of a growing McAllen.
The region is eager for more nurses, according to community, health care and education leaders.
“There are a lot of extraordinary qualities of an Aggie nurse, but perhaps the best is that they go where they are needed,” Horsley said.
Patient progression
The College of Nursing’s formal entry into the Valley is years in the making. Just ask Deb Wise, PhD, a now-retired administrator and educator in the college who nearly a decade ago was tasked by then-dean Sharon Wilkerson, PhD, to explore what a BSN program offered by Texas A&M in McAllen might look like. The university had already offered select courses and degrees in McAllen since 2004, and the college even placed an advisor there in 2014 to help with recruiting and outreach.
Wise connected with colleague Nora Montalvo-Liendo, PhD, the college’s lone faculty member in the Valley who maintained office space there for her research on violence and abuse. Montalvo-Liendo, also now retired, connected Wise to influential community members who told the longtime nurse educator how badly they needed more nurses in the region.
Moved by their passion and opportunity, Wise recalls getting emotional on one of her many six-hour treks back to Bryan-College Station.
“I thought to myself how education and health care are the foundation of a community,” Wise said. “And we know how to do that.”
Wise got to work, inviting chief nursing officers and clinical education leaders from across the region to form a clinical advisory board. Soon, she and others were meeting with cities and their development boards, elected officials and school systems across the Valley. Their feedback remained consistent: They wanted Aggie nurses.
“I don’t know that I’ve been in a community that is so engaged to get things done,” Wise said. “And when I took our people down there, that was evident. People immediately felt it.”
You could also see it. The HECM campus opened in 2018, offering bachelor’s degree programs in engineering and public health.
The Texas A&M team working in McAllen made visits to the Valley regularly, understanding more with each trip about what another nursing program could mean for the area from leaders like Daniel P. King, PhD, executive director of the Region One Education Service Center. The Edinburg-based organization, which is one of 20 regional service centers in Texas supported by state funding, helps schools in deep South Texas with a variety of education-related services, including identifying career pathways and promoting college readiness.
“We know there is a statewide shortage of RNs, but it’s more exacerbated here,” King said. “Our nursing programs in the Valley have grown and are doing a great job, but they don’t have enough seats. We have a lot of qualified students who graduate from high school and want to go into nursing.”
The Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies projects that the state’s supply of registered nurses will be more than 56,000, or 18%, short of the demand by 2036. In the Valley, the difference is expected to approach more than 6,000, or 30%.
By 2020, the pieces were in place to begin addressing those figures. Funding was earmarked, land was identified at HECM and plans were ready for approval by the necessary state and nursing agencies. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced the higher education community to collectively pause and shift focus.
After reworking project timelines and familiarizing new university leaders on the Valley’s nagging need for talented nurses like Aggies, Texas A&M broke ground on the Nursing Education and Research Building on the HECM campus in January 2024. The facility features four nursing classrooms, study areas and a 10,000-square-foot clinical simulation center.
“The excitement around Aggie nurses having access to our BSN program in the Valley is shared between the region and Texas A&M,” Horsley said. “These students understand their communities and will be best suited to serve the unique needs of the people living there.”
King, whose nearly 50-year career in education has all been in the Valley, recognizes the significance of earning a Texas A&M degree close to home.
“Having [the program] here locally makes it more likely the graduates will fill local positions,” he said.
McAllen’s veteran leader
The college turned to a familiar face to oversee its presence in McAllen. LeRoy Marklund, DNP, a clinical associate professor who served more than 30 years in the U.S. Army before entering higher education, was named assistant dean for undergraduate nursing education – McAllen in August 2025.
Marklund’s reputation as an engaged educator and strong leader—something he directly attributes to his time in the military—is well known among his students and colleagues in Bryan-College Station, where he has taught since 2018.
“Dr. Marklund is uniquely qualified to lead our expansion in McAllen,” Horsley said. “He deeply understands what it means to be an Aggie nurse working through our program. He has a special ability to build relationships with students, which is critical at a distant site where connection back to our other campuses is important to remind us all that we are one Texas A&M. Dr. Marklund is also the quintessential example of what it means to live the Aggie Core Values.”
A second-career nurse who transitioned to the profession in his 30s after working in agriculture and land management, Marklund is responsible for an initial faculty roster of three in McAllen. He often reflects on how his military career has prepared him to lead in nursing education.
“Just like in the military, nurses don’t work alone; the success of our team depends on how we can support each other,” Marklund said. “Demonstrating strong leadership and compassionately care are traits that are required of both soldiers and nurses.”
Marklund, whose two sons Neil ’18 and Lee ’19 are Aggies, retired from the U.S. Army in 2018 and had originally planned to teach for three years before he and his wife, Happy, pursued life after work full time. But his foray into education, enriched by a veteran-friendly Texas A&M, proved too fulfilling, and he felt compelled to defer shuffleboard in favor of his stethoscope.
“Working and connecting with students is incredibly rewarding,” Marklund said. “Texas A&M fosters an environment for Aggies to be successful, and I have observed and experienced that firsthand while teaching in Bryan-College Station. The opportunity to extend that impact to the Valley is a humbling opportunity.”
‘Never alone’
Horsley says her visits to McAllen these days remain exciting because of the area’s vibrancy and potential for more Aggies to make an impact.
“There was so much positive buildup to our program in the Valley, and it has finally come to fruition,” Horsley said. “We feel welcome and privileged to serve this region. But we continue to look at ways to best help our communities there thrive and be healthy. The work of an Aggie nurse is never done.”
The college is continuing to develop clinical and education partnerships and explore ways its students and faculty can enjoy the benefits of the McAllen and Texas A&M communities.
And for Marklund, who is quick to share about his military experience that he “always met an Aggie, at home and abroad,” the opportunity to honor old traditions in a new place is special.
“How exciting for these students to be able to stay close to home and enter the Aggie network, where they’ll never be alone,” Marklund said.
