Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mountain and plains states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota share a common set of problems that outstrip existing occupational health resources: rising population, large groups of underserved Native American and Latino workers, region-specific work-related health issues (e.g., mining, energy, agriculture), and geographic distance from educational centers of excellence in occupational health. With the anticipated 2008 opening of a new Collaborative School of Public Health in the State of Colorado that will incorporate faculty and students from three universities, there is an immediate need to align the region's occupational health programs into a coherent, integrated, multidisciplinary unit. The objectives of the new, proposed Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC) are to help promote interdisciplinary, integrated graduate education in occupational health; to improve continuing education and outreach activities in an underserved region; to support pilot research projects that advance the NORA agenda; and to address minority recruitment and retention needs, with particular emphasis on Native Americans and Latino groups. The MAP ERC will incorporate five programs from the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and Colorado State University: Core programs in Industrial Hygiene (IH) and Occupational Medicine Residency (OMR), and allied health programs in Health Physics (HP), Ergonomics (ERGO), and Occupational Health Psychology (OHP). The first four of these programs are currently funded, in part, as individual NIOSH training grants. All provide either graduate (masters or doctoral) or postdoctoral/ residency level training. Annually, the MAP ERC will train 5 in IH, 4 in OMR, 5 in HP, 5 in ERGO, and 3 in OHP. Continuing Education, with particular emphasis on state-of-the-art distance learning tools, is expected to provide training for over 1400 in year one. Working in concert with the Tri-ethnic Center at Colorado State University, the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs and the Office of Diversity at University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Indian Health Service, and by collaborating with neighboring ERCs, this new Center will use innovative approaches and community alliances to improve the occupational health disparities facing the region and nation.