Chronicle Staff Report

Buies Creek-based Campbell University has opened the state’s first new medical school in 35 years.

The Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine’s first class of 150 students began studying last month. They will spend the first two years learning on the Harnett County campus in state-of-the-art simulation labs before being assigned to training opportunities in regional community hospitals.

Two Winston-Salem residents — Tarreyca Taylor and Brooke Ashlynn Williams — are among the School’s crop of students.

Taylor, a graduate of East Forsyth High School, earned a BS in biology from Elizabeth City State University, where she was in the honors program, on the cheerleading squad and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society.

While at ECSU, she visited South Africa for 10 weeks for a research project.  After college, she worked as the project coordinator for a research grant program, “STEPS to a Healthier Heart,” at Winston-Salem State University, under the guidance of Dr. Cynthia Williams Brown.

Taylor, the daughter of James and Pamela Moses, has an interest in internal and family medicine.

Williams, the daughter of Dwayne and Pamela Williams, graduated from Mt. Tabor in 2007. She earned a BA in psychology from N.C. State University in May 2011 and a MS degree in medical science from Hampton University.

Williams said she was influenced to attend medical school after witnessing her aunt’s battle with sickle cell anemia.

The mission of the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine is to educate and prepare community-based osteopathic physicians in a Christian environment to care for the rural and underserved populations in North Carolina, the Southeastern United States and the nation.