New School Year Sees New Campus Gym
Ceremony Brings Together TUC Community, Honors Slain PA/MPH Alumna
The campus community gathered at noontime Aug. 10 to dedicate the new Lander Hall Gym in space that until recently served as the OMM Lab on the lower floor, a space that was vacated in favor of fresh digs for OMM classes in Truett Hall.
Student Doctor Isabella Tan, the current SGA Vice President for Athletics and a student in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, helped to welcome guests. In the process, Tan rededicated the gym to honor a former alumna and veteran who died in October 2019.
Tragedy, Then a Global Pandemic
You need to look back to a time just prior to and into the early years of the global Covid-19 pandemic for some perspective.
Public health restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19 were easing and effective vaccines were more readily available when members of what’s now the Dual MSPAS/MPH Class of 2012 came together in October 2022 for their 10-year reunion.
They wanted to honor one of their classmates, Navy Lt. Ruth Cortes, who was killed three years earlier in Southern California while off-duty, just months before the Covid-19 virus, and the pandemic, hit our shores in earnest.
Cortes by all accounts had a giving spirit.
She put off medical school so she could help her father care for her sisters when her mother died in a vehicle accident soon after Cortes graduated from San Diego State. She went on to serve for six years in the U.S. Air Force Reserves before resuming her dream of becoming a medical practitioner and attending Touro University California’s Dual PA/MPH program.
Cortes served as a Physician Assistant in the U.S. Navy after completing her dual degrees at Touro and was advancing her skills by taking part in the Navy PA Orthopedic Fellowship at the time of her death.
Classmates when they gathered in Fall 2022 wanted to honor Cortes.
Friends and family of Cortes raised money to recognize her love of running through purchasing treadmills for a small gym on the lower floor of Wilderman Hall. They also had a plaque installed, and soon thereafter launched the Lt. Ruth Cortes PA Scholarship.
Dr. Joy Moverley, who currently serves as Director of the Physician Assistant Program on campus, spearheaded the efforts to honor her classmate.
The plaque was placed on a wall in front of the treadmills in the Wilderman gym to honor the athletic side of Cortes’ life. She was a track star in high school and remained an avid runner. The plaque remained in the small gym until earlier this year.
Requests From Students Help Shape New Gym
The new gym consolidates two smaller gym sites on campus and was done at the request of students, Campus Provost Dr. Tami Hendriksz, Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and a 2006 alumna of the DO program, said during the gym’s opening ceremony.
Students who gathered in the new space received Touro swag and snacks. A cadre of students staffed each of the stations in the gym to answer questions about their use.
Work on the project began in the Spring 2026 semester and was completed over the summer. A rolling soft opening of sorts continued through Orientation as the project neared completion.
Part of the project involved clearing the two smaller gyms, which saw the plaque honoring Cortes removed from the wall of the Wilderman gym and safely set aside. Relocation of the plaque was one of the finishing touches added to the new gym space the morning of the formal grand opening.
The plaque is once again situated on a wall in front of the treadmills.
Those who wish to honor Cortes’ service and memory may do so by contributing to the Lt. Ruth Cortes PA-C Scholarship. Select the scholarship from the drop-down menu on the page.