Peterson Hall
The Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall is a five-story building with approximately 165,000 square feet located on a five-acre site on the north side of the Mason Fairfax campus. Peterson Hall opened in 2018 and houses five departments within the college and the School of Nursing: Global & Community Health, Health Administration and Policy, Nutrition & Food Studies, Rehabilitation Science, and Social Work. The college’s Central Administration, and the Population Health Center (PHC) are also housed within Peterson Hall. The facility features classrooms, teaching labs, simulation labs, a nutrition kitchen teaching lab, other research laboratories (wet and dry), student work areas, and conference rooms. The Population Health Center (see below) is housed in an attached two-story structure.
The Population Health Center
The Population Health Center (PHC) is a state-of-the-art research, workforce development, and clinical facility located in the Peterson Hall annex. The Population Health Center serves as a nexus for:
- interprofessional clinical care for underserved populations;
- transdisciplinary research of consequence to improve the public’s health; and
- learning and development opportunities for practitioners and students.
The Center facilitates partnerships between academia and community and houses the 10th Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinic and state-of-the art facilities for telehealth, research, and delivering clinical care. Practitioners and community partners will provide referrals for resources to address social determinants such as access to housing, food, and prescriptions. This intersection of academics and practice creates the infrastructure and opportunity to engage the community in the public health education of our region as we strive to make health visible.
Peterson Hall and the Population Health Center offer the following features to support state-of-the-art research: examination rooms, research interview rooms, bone densitometry (DEXA – dual energy x-ray absorptiometry), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), ultrasonography, gait function, metabolic measurements, ultra-low temperature freezers, an electronic medical record system that encompasses the PHC and all MAP clinic locations, and biospecimen management systems. Its core staff includes an intake receptionist, a clinic coordinator, and a medical assistant. A unique feature of the Center is that it is designed to support telehealth in all examination and conference rooms, so that the Center can reach an even broader audience in its community outreach, clinical work, and research.
The Center is also the site of a longitudinal study of young adults, the Mason: Health Starts Here Student Cohort Study, which was designed by faculty in the College of Public Health and other colleges at George Mason University. The Center is also the future site of two additional nutrition studies. The Population Health Center offers infrastructure for the College, the University, and community-based programs and is designed to facilitate research in underserved populations. Clinical care is provided to uninsured and underinsured individuals in the MAP Clinic.
Together, Peterson Hall and the Population Health Center offer resources unique to community care, clinical care and research.
Summary of space:
- Clinical space: 1,967 net square feet. (Includes first-floor lobby of 818sf.)
- Research space: 622 net square feet.
- Meeting space: 470 net square feet.
- Office space: 547 net square feet.
The entire Peterson Annex is 11,030 gross square feet. Each floor is 5,515 gross square feet.
