CANFIELD, Ohio – The newest addition to the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center campus brings education, training and healthcare under one roof.
MCCTC’s 13,000-square-foot Medical Wellness & Education Center at 7340 N. Palmyra Road is a partnership with Mercy Health and Cadence Care Network. The $7.5 million center was mostly funded with a $5 million grant through the Appalachian Community Innovation Centers program.
“We believe education should connect directly to the needs of our community,” Mary Mihalopoulos, MCCTC Adult Career Center director, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday. “The center will expand opportunities for our healthcare students to learn in modern, real-world environments. It also represents an important connection between education, wellness, workforce development and community services.”
The center includes a school-based clinic operated by Mercy Health for students and the community. Cadence Care Network offers professional mental health counseling and behavioral health services. Adult education and training programs also are offered at the center, including EMT, paramedic courses and practical nursing.
“As an Ohio technical center, we are proud to expand our workforce training opportunities with our Hannah E. Mullins Practical Nursing, our paramedic community and more partners to come,” Mihalopoulos said. “We are preparing students not simply to graduate, but to enter careers with confidence, skills, experience and a deeper understanding of the importance of serving others.”
The Hannah E. Mullins School of Practical Nursing relocated from Salem to MCCTC in fall 2025.
MCCTC Superintendent John Zehentbauer said Friday’s ceremony was about more than opening a new building.
“It is the beginning of a new model for how education, healthcare, behavioral health and public safety and also workforce development can come together to serve students in the entire region,” he said.
Zehentbauer said the vision for the Medical Wellness and Education Center focused on three goals.
“Our first goal was to improve access to healthcare and wellness services for our students, staff and community,” he said. “One of the most exciting and meaningful parts of the Medical Wellness and Education Center is our school-based health clinic, created through our partnership with Mercy Health and Cadence Care Network.”
Education and wellness are closely connected, and the clinic offers another way to support students, Zehentbauer said. When students don’t feel well and can’t easily access care, it affects their ability to learn and succeed. But providing healthcare and supportive services on the MCCTC campus serves the whole student, he said.
The center also provides walk-in services to benefit the community.
“Our second goal was to recognize that wellness includes both physical and mental health,” the superintendent said, pointing to the partnership with Cadence Care Network.
The network has been providing services for students for years, but the new center will enable it to offer those services to the community too.
“Students cannot separate what happens to them in the classroom from what they are experiencing emotionally, socially at home,” the superintendent said.
The third goal was to expand healthcare education and provide a stronger workforce and pipeline for the Mahoning Valley.
“We created the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center of Nursing, which includes Hannah E. Mullins, along with our future LPN to RN diploma program,” Zehentbauer said. “We also partner with YSU and other universities, and we’ll provide even more opportunities.”
State Rep. Nick Santucci of Niles, R-64th, said the Ohio legislature has invested in career technical education, viewing career tech centers as the direct pipeline into the workforce.
“And so facilities like this, I believe, allow students to have hands-on opportunity to thrive, to build themselves and develop themselves and also to find their role in life, and I think that’s really significant and important,” said Santucci, who is also the majority whip.
Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health Lorain and Youngstown, said the center brings together primary and walk-in care.
“These services directly are the heart of what we do, and [the center] brings it to this community, making it easier for everyone to receive the care that they need when they need it,” he said. “Access to primary care is really the most important factor for improving health wellness in our communities.”
It also connects Mercy Health to the students and education at MCCTC, he said. Mercy has a 115-year history of educating physicians, Kravec added.
“We’re committed to investing in this talent pipeline for our future caregivers, and that’s what makes this so special to us,” he said. “This facility will truly help change the healthcare workforce for tomorrow.”
Nikunj Patel, Cadence Care Network executive vice president of business development, said organization leaders believe that access matters.
“We’re committed to bringing behavioral health services to where people need them – closer to where they live, closer to where they work and closer to where they go to school,” he said. “We operate in many areas across Ohio, in offices, in the homes of the very communities that you guys all live in. However, today we do it here, and we’re so grateful to be doing it in this beautiful new facility.”
MCCTC officials also named the lobby of the new center for a longtime board member and former educator.
“While this entire building stands as a testament to progress and community care, we must take a moment today to dedicate a very special space within it,” said Jeffery Good, board president. “That’s the Marie D. Dockry Lobby. It’s only fitting that as we open a facility centered on service, guidance and well-being, that we honor someone who has dedicated her entire life to those exact ideals.”
Dockry, a board of education member since 1995, thanked organizations and individuals involved in the Medical Wellness and Education Center as well as those who honored her with the lobby dedication.
“I am confident that going forward, our leadership team of board members, administration and staff will make this medical wellness and education center a huge success,” she said.
Pictured at top: Mary Mihalopoulos, Mahoning County Career & Technical Center Adult Career Center director, and MCCTC Superintendent John Zehentbauer.