Spelman College Center for Health Disparities Research and Education

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Spelman College has achieved remarkable success in strengthening its research infrastructure over the past 10 years. Resulting directly from the effective utilization and management of RIMI funds awarded in 1996 and 2002, these achievements also underscore the impact of strong institutional commitment to advancing faculty research development and productivity in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. The proposed project, "The Spelman College Center for Health Disparities Research and Education," aims to further these achievements by focusing on health disparities research through the development of a program that builds on the strengths of faculty in environmental, biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. Specifically, the Center will provide a dynamic platform for supporting and coordinating the health disparities research efforts of faculty from diverse academic disciplines at the College, while emphasizing environmental factors in health disparities research. Integrating these multidisciplinary perspectives to address health disparities will allow for the exchange of innovative ideas. Research collaborations with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Morehouse School of Medicine Center of Excellence on Health Disparities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Morehouse College Research Center on Health Disparities will be instrumental in providing opportunities to strengthen faculty and student research training and development. By providing competitive support for collaborative research in health disparities, as well as offering mentorship and startup funds for junior faculty, the Center for Health Disparities Research and Education will be an efficient source of research support. The Center will also fund one Health Disparities Postdoctoral Fellow per year, who will work with an interdisciplinary faculty research team and teach two courses per year. In addition, a Health Disparities Research Scholars Program will be established to build a multidisciplinary community of undergraduate scholars committed to health disparities research and graduate training. This synergistic combination of faculty and student research development activities in health disparities will yield significant outcomes with respect to strengthening the research infrastructure at Spelman College. The overall mission of this program is to positively impact health disparities through the implementation of the following strategic goals: 1) To broaden Spelman's participation in health disparities and environmental health; 2) To increase faculty research productivity in health disparities; and 3) To increase the numbers of African American women students entering graduate programs in health disparities.