October 5, 2001

HRSA Awards Grants to Improve Diversity in Health Professions

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced Sept. 10 nine new Centers of Excellence grants totaling $5.4 million to increase the number of minority health professionals. Currently, minorities represent more than 25 percent of the total U.S. population, but comprise just 10 percent of the health care workforce.

Since the program's inception in 1987, 250 schools of medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry and pharmacy have received Centers of Excellence grants worth $153 million to train some 52,000 students. In addition to the nine new grant recipients (listed below), 22 other institutions are current grantees.

• Regents of the University of California San Francisco: $599,285
• University of Colorado: $411,502
• University of Kansas Medical Center: $994,499
• University of Minnesota: $630,252
• University of Montana: $319,332
• University of New Mexico: $608,666
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine: $481,055
• Texas Tech University Health Science Center: $761,653
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: $586,188