NASHVILLE, Tenn. – State Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville, has secured $3 million in state funding for East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. The funds will be used to replace educational and scientific equipment at the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine, which will enhance the institution’s ability to meet community and regional health needs. “The […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – State Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville, has secured $3 million in state funding for East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.
The funds will be used to replace educational and scientific equipment at the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine, which will enhance the institution’s ability to meet community and regional health needs.
“The Quillen College of Medicine produces some of the highest-quality physicians in Tennessee and is vital to our state’s health care system,” Hicks said. “These much-needed funds will help advance the institution’s mission of reaching underserved and rural communities in the Volunteer State. I’m grateful to my colleagues for supporting this important investment and I look forward to seeing the impact of this new equipment on student success.”
The Quillen College of Medicine is the sole medical school in the Tennessee Board of Regents System, which governs community and technical colleges in the Volunteer State. Hicks in 2023 helped secure $2.5 million in annual funding for the ETSU Gatton College of Pharmacy, lowering tuition rates for in-state students by 30% and out-of-state students by 15%.
The appropriated funds are part of a $59.8 billion balanced budget passed by lawmakers in April and guided in the House by Hicks, who serves as chair of the Finance, Ways and Means Committee. Republican priorities include significant investments to improve academic outcomes, provide disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Helene, enhance public safety for all Tennesseans and increase funding to address transportation infrastructure needs.
Tennessee Republicans invested $264 million in new dollars for higher education in 2025-26 and provided funding to fully support outcomes for all locally governed institutions, the University of Tennessee system, community colleges and Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology.
Hicks, an ETSU alumnus, is serving his first term as chairman of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee. He previously served three terms as chairman of the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee, where he helped guide passage of several multibillion-dollar state budgets that strengthened Tennessee’s economy.
State Rep. Gary Hicks of Rogersville represents District 9 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, which includes Hancock and part of Claiborne and Hawkins counties. He is chairman of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee.