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Central Carolina Community College's Lee Campus Health Building, now Gilbert W. Lett Hall, was built in 1988 to house the growing nursing programs. Taking part in the groundbreaking were (from left) Betty Hanrahan, practical nursing instructor; Merry Pittman, Nursing Department secretary; Gloria Peele, Nursing Department chair; Jackie Parker, nursing instructor; and Elbert Price, CCCC business manager.

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The Lee County Industrial Education Center (now Central Carolina Community College) offered its first Practical Nurse Education class in April 1963. The students graduated March 25, 1964, the first curriculum class to graduate from the Center. Pictured are instructor Esther Burke, R.N. (back, right), and the graduates: (front, from left) Marguerite Phelps, Betty Pearson, Mary Small, Leslie Lucas, Cecilia Troutman, and Maggie Cummings; (back, from left) Elderlene Keller, Eugenia Fox, Jean Marsh, Betty Johnson, Joyce Arnette, Rachel Marshburn, Toleta Graham, and Newel Pritchett.

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Nancy M. Hall, R.N. (left, back), director of Nursing Education Options within the Associate in Applied Science in Nursing degree program at Central Carolina Technical College (now Central Carolina Community College), fastens a graduate's nursing cap during a graduation about 1984 outside the Lee County Hospital. Watching are nursing instructor Gloria Peele (at the lectern), and (seated, from left) college President Marvin Joyner and Nursing Department Chair Esther Burke. The program started in fall 1982 and enabled students to become practical nurses or continue the associate degree program. In 1994, the program's name was changed to 'Associate Degree Nursing.'

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Health sciences training at Central Carolina Community College continues to grow as the need for well-trained professionals increases. The latest program addition is Medical Assisting, in which students are cross-trained to perform many administrative and clinical duties in physicians' offices or out-patient clinics. CCCC Medical Assisting students (pictured) at the Harnett County Campus learn some of their skills on a medical manikin that simulates many functions of the human body.

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Nursing instructor Gloria Peele (right), of Sanford, talks to two nursing students about human anatomy during one of the first classes she taught in 1966. Peele started teaching nursing at Central Carolina Technical Institute (now Central Carolina Community College) that year, then served as director of the Nursing Program from 1985 until her retirement in 1995.

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Central Carolina Community College, then known as the Lee County Industrial Education Center, offered its first classes in 1961 in Lee County. The first nurse aide class (pictured) started in Chatham County in 1964, with Mary Esther Carter, R.N. (in uniform) as the instructor. Now, the college offers a wide variety of curriculum and continuing education health sciences programs in Chatham, Harnett and Lee counties.

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A 50,200-square-foot Central Carolina Community College Health Sciences Building is under construction in Brightwater Science and Technology Campus, in Lillington. The facility, scheduled to open in fall 2013, will provide state-of-the-art health care training.