Updated: Tuesday, January 21 2014, 06:29 PM CST

University Medical Center Brackenridge is a giant step closer to have a medical school to go with it. Today the school -- the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas--announced its first dean.

A lot of people worked behind the scenes to bring neurologist Dr. Clay Johnston from San Francisco to be the first dean of UT's new medical school. But Dr. Johnston knows he wouldn't be here without the blessing of local voters.

He says, "To imagine that in the middle of a recession that the citizens of a city would agree to increase their property tax. I can tell you it wouldn't happen in San Francisco."

In 2012, Travis County voters approved hiking the tax rate for Central Health-- the county hospital district-- in order to commit $35 million a year to support the medical school.

The school and its teaching hospital are all part of a grander plan to convert health care delivery in Austin to a team effort to address new economic realities including the Affordable Care Act.

Clarke Heidrick, a board member for Central Health says, "The way medicine is going to be played in the 21st century: nurses, pharmacists, social workers, the whole team that's going to have to take care of the population, certainly the population that Central Health serves."

And with all these changes also come opportunities. UT nursing students see jobs in their future. Olivia Tristan says, "I think we're going to be graduating right when it's opening. So hopefully we can slide in there and have a life-long career there, too."

The next milestone for the new medical school will be the groundbreaking ceremony for its new facilities. That's expected to come sometime in March.

By Fred Cantu

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UT Names Dean For New Medical School