Traning Institute

CEMH NEWS

Press Release

From the Center of Excellence in Minority Health
Institute of Epidemiology and Health Services Research
School of Health Sciences, College of Public Service
Jackson State University

7-06-05

The Center of Excellence for Minority Health at Jackson State University has teamed with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health--housed in one of the most prestigious and well-financed Schools of Public Health in the country--to create the first Research Career Development Training Institute in Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The institute is designed to increase the number of minority investigators who are successful in securing faculty appointments and independent funding through the National Institutes of Health, Centers of Disease Control and other federal agencies. The first summer training Institute provided essential training in "survival skills" in research and focused on choosing a mentor, applying for pre- and post-doctoral training awards, grantsmanship skills, and individual career plans and research projects.

Following a year of planning, leaders of the respective centers met earlier this month in Pittsburgh to co-direct the four-day institute for 30 trainees selected from a large pool of applicants from around the country. Faculty attendees from JSU were Dr. Anthony Mawson, Professor of Public Health and Principal Investigator of the Center; Dr. Marinelle Payton, Assistant Dean for Research and Development, College of Public Service; Dr. P. Bassey Williams, Visiting Professor of Public Health; and Dr. Anthony Sallar, Assistant Professor and Senior Research Scientist with the center. The three trainees from JSU were Dr. Geri Cannon-Smith, Assistant Professor of Public Health; Dr. Russell Bennett, Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management; and Dr. Rodney Washington, Assistant Professor, Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department of Education.

The University of Pittsburgh team is led by Dr. Stephen Thomas, Philip Hallen Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Principal Investigator of the Center for Minority Health; Dr. Sandra Quinn, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Co-Principal Investigator; Dr. Charles Reynolds, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology; and Dr. Ed Ricci, Professor of Public Health. Ms. Connie Little from JSU and Dr. Rachael Berget of the University of Pittsburgh are the respective Project Coordinators for the centers.

"This is the first of what we hope will be an annual series of research career development institutes in minority health and health disparities," said JSU's Dr. Mawson. "Trainee evaluations of the Institute were overwhelmingly enthusiastic and positive. Highlights of the program were the opportunity for faculty and trainees to get to know each other over dinner in the homes of University of Pittsburgh faculty and to establish relationships that could lead to future collaborative grant applications and research."

JSU's Center of Excellence in Minority Health was created in 2003 through a four-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and involves partnerships with the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (under the leadership of Dr. Herman Taylor, Principal Investigator of the Jackson Heart Study and Co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Excellence in Minority Health), and the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation. The mission of the Center is to understand and to seek ways to address and ultimately eliminate the pervasive disparities in health and health care affecting minorities and other historically underserved populations.