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AAMC, RWJF, and Kellogg Award 10 New Grants to Enchance Minority Student Participation in Health Careers

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Washington, D.C., March 22, 2000--The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and W.K. Kellogg Foundation announce the award of 10 new grants--five to schools of public health--through the Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) to support the development of strategies aimed at increasing the participation of minorities in medicine, nursing and other health professions.

Since HPPI's inception in 1996, it has awarded 26 grants through three rounds. The 10 grantees are: Arkansas State University College of Nursing and Health Professions; Creighton University School of Medicine; Emory University School of Public Health; the University of Alabama School of Medicine; the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health; The Latino Center for Medical Education and Research at Fresno of the University of California at San Francisco; the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health; the University of South Carolina School of Public Health; and Yale University School of Medicine. The grants total $350,000 over a five-year period.

Last year, RWJF in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health expanded the HPPI grants program to include programs and schools of public health. As a result, five of the grants are now designated for public health and the remaining grants are awarded to health professions schools, such as medicine, nursing, and dentistry.

"Through the HPPI program we can prepare tomorrow's health professionals to meet the complex needs of our increasingly diverse society," said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "The on-going involvement of institutions in their communities is an important building block in our efforts to diversify the health professions."

The AAMC manages the HPPI program. The grants program, which grew out of AAMC's Project 3000 by 2000, is an example of the many AAMC initiatives to address the long-standing underrepresentation of blacks, Mexican-Americans, mainland Puerto Ricans and American Indians in U.S. medical schools and the medical profession. HPPI partnerships coordinate the efforts of two or more health professional schools with those of colleges, predominantly minority high schools, and community-based organizations to enhance the interest and academic preparedness of students as they progress from one stage of the health professions education "pipeline" to the next.

The HPPI partnership grants aim to stimulate:

• high career aspirations;
• interest in health careers;
• high academic achievement;
• modifications to educational programs, as needed, guided by a detailed understanding of students' needs, local resources, and the best practices of institutions known for their success.

For more information on the HPPI grants, please contact Lois Bergeisen.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing nearly 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.