The Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences Foundation Board has announced that Birmingham-based construction company, Brasfield and Gorrie, has been selected to build the new ASHS campus in Demopolis. According to leadership within the organization, the general contractor is expected to have the new facilities and campus open by the fall of 2027.
ASHS will be the second of the state’s four residential specialty high schools built by Brasfield & Gorrie after it constructed the Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering (ASCTE) in Huntsville, which opened its doors in 2022.
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“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.”
Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President and Division Manager Bill Steed believes the construction firm’s years of hard work on the state’s behalf will be of great benefit going forward with the project.
“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 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.”
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Dr. James “Jimmy” Martin is 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.
The school will soft-open in the 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.
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
