St. Luke’s University Health Network has celebrated the opening of St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences.

The College, which operates on the campus of St. Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem, offers the following programs:

• Radiography (Associate Degree)

• Respiratory Care (Associate Degree)

• RN to BSN (Bachelor’s Degree)

In addition to its degree-granting programs, the College offers general education courses.

The inaugural student class includes approximately 150 students in all programs and courses with 73 starting during the summer session and the remaining beginning this fall.

One of the students is Brianne Swope, who is enrolled in the RN to BSN program and is a graduate of St. Luke’s School of Nursing.

Swope was a volunteer before working in a nursing home from 2007 to 2020. While completing her prerequisites for the School of Nursing, she applied for a position with St. Luke’s Mental Health. She completed the School of Nursing program with full tuition reimbursement.

After graduating, Swope continued her career in mental health at St. Luke’s Penn Foundation. The online RN to BSN program allows her to pursue her education while working full-time.

Approval to establish St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences was granted in October 2025 by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“This is a historic milestone for the Lehigh Valley,” Mary Grace Simcox, EdD, RN, first president of St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences, said at the May 18 ribbon-cutting.

“The launch of St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences reflects a bold commitment to strengthening our health care workforce by providing an affordable, local pathway to high-demand careers complete with guaranteed clinical placements, hands-on learning, small class sizes and clear opportunities for professional advancement,” Simcox stated in a press release from St. Luke’s.

Respiratory Care and Radiography classes will be held at the Priscilla Payne Hurd Education Center. The RN to BSN program will be offered fully online with a curriculum to support adult learners seeking non-traditional college experiences.

Students will have access to simulation and skills labs, study areas and library resources.

St. Luke’s longstanding partnerships with regional colleges and universities will continue while the new College expands the Network’s ability to address workforce shortages in health care.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the health-care and social assistance sector is projected to experience the largest job growth between 2024 and 2034, driven by an aging population and persistent workforce shortages.

St. Luke’s has operated the oldest School of Nursing in the United States, providing the only four-year medical school through The Temple St. Luke’s School of Medicine, and offering more than 60 Graduate Medical Education programs.

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000-plus employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350-plus outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s largest employer.

The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.

St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.

In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It operates the nation’s oldest continuously-operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60-plus fully-accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550-plus residents and fellows.

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s No. 1, ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience.

St. Luke’s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health-care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.

In 2026, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog in all of its acute-care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as the “No. 1 Teaching Hospital In The Country.”

Utilizing the Epic “Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system for inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.

Information or to apply: www.StLukesCollege.org