Physician, Heal the City founder, to be honored with WTAMU honorary doctorate

( Editor's Note: The above clip is a view of leading headings from the early morning of May 10, 2023.)

CANYON, Texas (BNN) - - Officials with West Texas A&M University announced that another neighborhood member will be presented with an honorary doctorate from the university during a start ceremony on Saturday.

According to a press release from WTAMU, Alan Keister, an Amarillo doctor and the creator of Heal the City, will be presented with an honorary Ph.D. in health sciences from West Texas A&M's College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Keister will be presented with this honorary doctorate at the 2 p.m. ceremony on Saturday at the First United Bank.

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According to the release, Keister is an Amarillo High graduate and made degrees from Baylor University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Vanderbilt University. Keister established Heal the City in 2014 to serve uninsured patients throughout the region.

" WT has such a history as an institute of higher learning and of true blessing the Texas Panhandle," Keister said in the release. "To be honored by an institution like that and to be acknowledged for work that really has actually been a labor of love is incredibly humbling."

Officials said this year, the Heal the City clinic is anticipated to serve around 8,000 clients and fill nearly 38,000 prescriptions.

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" Statistics do not start to inform the story of the impact on the area that Dr. Alan Keister's imagine a free center supplies," said Dr. J. Dirk Nelson, dean. "He lives a life of dedication to others, regularly having a favorable and meaningful influence on the regional neighborhood and serving as an inspiring model for other neighborhoods throughout the nation. His passion for the clinically underserved and less lucky makes him a perfect prospect for an honorary doctorate in health sciences."

" Dr. Keister's commitment to health care, specifically to rural and underserved residents, is amazing," WT President Walter V. Wendler added. "His dedication to serving others is unrivaled. His presence and influence in the Texas Panhandle are unmatched."

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