Courtesy / University of New England
One of the labs at the new Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences.
Updated: June 4, 2025
University of New England unveils new Portland health sciences building
PHOTO / TINA FISCHER
The new 110,000-square-foot health sciences building at UNE's Portland campus.
The University of New England unveiled this week the new home for its medical school on its Portland campus.
The $93 million, 110,000-square-foot Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences, dubbed "the Bibby” by students, relocates the College of Osteopathic Medicine from UNE’s Biddeford campus into a new building that will also serve the other health degree programs — including nursing, dental hygiene, social work, physical therapy, exercise science and pharmacy. It's on UNE's existing Stevens Avenue campus.
The consolidation will facilitate important integrated training experiences, according to Gwendolyn Mahon, UNE provost and vice president for academic affairs.
“Interprofessional Education, or IPE, provides students the opportunity to learn to work together as a unified health care team, which leads to improved outcomes for patients," said Mahon, who spoke at Tuesday’s ribbon cutting ceremony. "This facility is going to change the lives and the experiences of our students.”
Dr. Jane E. Carreiro, dean of UNE’s medical school, said the program will expand to graduate 21% more doctors, starting this year with 200, up from 165.
The opening comes at "a time when Maine and the nation desperately need more physicians," she said. "And more than half of our doctors go on to practice primary care."
Current enrollment across all health science programs at UNE is 2,371. Total enrollment at UNE campuses is just over 11,000, of which 7,000 are students who participate online.
Greg Powell, who chairs the board of the Harold Alfond Foundation, praised UNE for having graduated over 16,000 health professionals over the past 30 years, including more than 4,000 physicians — “40% of which go on to serve rural areas,” Powell said.
PHOTO / TINA FISCHER
UNE president James Herbert spoke at the ribbon cutting for the new Portland medical studies building.
The new facility — Maine’s only medical school — was made possible in part by a $30 million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation, along with $5 million in federal funding. In 1985, the foundation provided a $2.5 million pledge and matching challenge to establish the Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences on UNE’s Biddeford campus.
UNE President James Herbert noted during the unveiling of the Portland facility that the vacated space in Biddeford will open opportunities for more programs focused on workforce development.
“The Bibby” was designed by Portland-based SMRT Architects and Engineers, and built by South Portland-based Ledgewood Construction.
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