ASHS Foundation Board taps Brasfield & Gorrie to build Demopolis Healthcare High School

Leading construction company to build first-of-its-kind residential healthcare high school in Alabama

DEMOPOLIS, AL, UNITED STATES, May 28, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Trustees for the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences Foundation have chosen Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie as general contractor and construction manager to build the specialized 10-acre campus that will teach, train and house high school students from throughout the state.

The Demopolis campus of ASHS is slated to open in the fall of 2027.

“Brasfield & Gorrie has an impeccable reputation for delivering the highest quality work on time — no matter the specifications or unexpected complications,” said ASHS Foundation Board President Kirk Stephens. “They are up to the demands of this project and the hard timelines that must be met.”

The Foundation board approved a $62 million agreement with Brasfield & Gorrie for the first phase of the campus, which will include an academic building, residential hall, dining facilities, 400-seat auditorium, and a recreational building. The campus will be adjacent to the school’s healthcare partner, Whitfield Regional Hospital, on land donated and prepared for construction by the city of Demopolis.

As general contractor for the massive West Alabama Highway Project, Brasfield & Gorrie recently opened a Demopolis field office to support WAH construction .

“We are grateful that so much of our work directly affects communities, and it’s easy to see how ASHS will extend our state’s healthcare education,” said Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President and Division Manager Bill Steed. “Between ASHS and the West Alabama Highway project, Brasfield & Gorrie is grateful to use our varied experiences to help build this part of our home state.”

The school will soft-open in fall of 2026 on its own mini-campus on the grounds of the University of West Alabama (UWA) with a freshman class of up to 100 students while construction of the Demopolis campus takes place. Caldwell Associates are architects on the project.

ASHS will be the second of the state’s four residential specialty high schools that Brasfield & Gorrie has built. Its work on the Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering (ASCTE), which opened in the 2022-23 school year, received professional honors and wide public praise.

That history is important to Dr. James “Jimmy” Martin, ASHS’ first president and a longtime Alabama educator. “The list of Brasfield & Gorrie’s educational projects is impressive, from primary schools to advanced university research centers,” he noted, “and their reputation for meeting expectations and deadlines is well-known.”

Major initial funding for ASHS is coming from a $26.4 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has included the school in its 10-campus network of high schools partnered with medical facilities across the U.S. to help alleviate the shortage of trained healthcare professionals while providing career opportunities for underserved youth. ASHS is the only one of the 10 that is a “ground-up” project and one of only two aimed at boosting rural medicine, with the remainder of the schools going into existing facilities in more urban settings.

About Brasfield & Gorrie
Since Brasfield & Gorrie started in 1964, the company has grown from a local contractor to a national construction company with 13 offices in eight states. It has helped clients complete projects that transform communities and power economies. In 2024, Brasfield & Gorrie had $6.4 billion in revenues and Engineering News-Record currently ranks them #23 on its Top 400 Contractors list. And during its growth, the company has maintained the identity that sets it apart—true builders guided by the Golden Rule.

About the ASHS Foundation
The Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences Foundation is a charitable, 501(c)(3) organization with the sole purpose of providing both financial and educational support for the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, scheduled to open in the fall of 2026. This residential, specialty high school, part of the Alabama public school system, will offer curricula, instruction and work-based training focused on the health sciences to prepare students for career-readiness in the healthcare industry. Among the chief purposes of the school is to alleviate the rural healthcare workforce shortage in Alabama.

For more information, visit the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences Foundation website at https://ashsfoundation.org/ . Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ashsfoundation and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/alabama-school-of-healthcare-sciences-foundation/

Jonathan McElvy
McElvy Communications
+1 713-689-8443
jonathan@mcelvycommunications.com
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