Another community organization is backing the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine because of the positive impact it’s expected to have on Cumberland County and the broader Southeast region.
The Cumberland Community Foundation announced a $1 million grant to the medical school at its annual Founders & Friends event.
It’s the largest grant ever awarded from the foundation’s unrestricted endowment fund, and will go towards the school’s $120 million in startup costs and scholarships for students.
“We are pleased to announce support that will improve the quality of life in southeastern North Carolina and increase our access to quality healthcare in the future,” Ricky Lopes, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, said in his remarks.
The grant comes a little over a month after the Duke Endowment gave $1.5 million to the medical school. Not including the foundation’s grant, the medical school has raised approximately $23 million in cash and commitments, Brad Johnson, director of marketing and communications for Methodist University, told CityView. That brings the school close to the $30 million fundraising goal announced at its topping off ceremony in April.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the foundation for awarding this to us,” Dr. Hershey Bell, founding dean of Methodist University’s College of Medicine, told CityView. “This is truly a medical school for the county, for the region, for the city of Fayetteville, and for the community foundation to recognize that and support it means the world to us.”
First announced in 2023, the medical school is a partnership between Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health, North Carolina’s eighth-largest health system. The school expects to welcome its first class of 64 students in July 2026 and has already hired over 50 full-time employees to educate them, Bell said. Seventy employees will be on staff by the time students arrive, and another 30 — for a final total of 100 — will come on board by 2028.
The school is currently pending accreditation from the Liaison Commission on Medical Education, the accrediting organization for medical schools providing MD degrees. However, Bell said he expects a congratulatory call from the liaison about three weeks from now.
Bell, Lopes and leaders from Cape Fear Valley Health and Methodist University have touted how the future medical school will improve health outcomes and Cumberland County’s economy. Both Michael Nagowski, CEO of Cape Fear Valley Health, and Stanley Wearden, president of Methodist University, spoke about how the school will help address the region’s “doctor desert” at the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s State of the Community event in August.
Southeastern North Carolina has a shortage of several types of medical care, including mental health, primary and maternity care, according to a 2025 report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the nonprofit
March of Dimes.
“This is really what this school is about: Producing physicians for our region for the future,” Bell said.
Physicians are already coming to Cape Fear Valley Health because of the medical school, Bell said, and Methodist University is seeing an influx in professors applying to work at the school. In total, the medical school expects to create over 800 jobs in the community, Lopes told the over 100 Founders & Friends event attendees.
Bell expects more employers to come to the county as a result of the medical school.
“When businesses look to open in communities like ours, they look at two things really,” Bell said. “Is there good education for my employees’ children and is there good health care for my employees and their families?”
The potential impact a successful medical school would have on Cumberland County is why Lopes encouraged those in attendance to consider donating.
“Many of you have already supported this transformational resource for our community,” Lopes said. “And we hope others will do the same.”

UCW Editor’s Note: This article has been edited due to space constraints. To read the article in full, visit https://www.cityviewnc.com/stories/methodist-university-cape-fear-valley-health-school-of-medicine-medical-school-receives-1-million-dollar-grant-from-cumbnerland-community-foundation/