UAlbany receives $1 million grant from the Hearst Foundations

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The University at Albany received a $1 million grant from the Hearst Foundations to further the Health Disparities Fellows program within the University’s Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD).

The program was developed in 2016 with a $10 million endowment grant from the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities, to recruit scholars from normally underrepresented minority groups who have first-hand experience with the disparities being studied. The new grant will reportedly allow the Hearst Foundations to recruit five new fellows.

“We are extremely grateful to the Hearst Foundations for their recognition of the important work our CEMHD students are doing and have the potential to do,” said UAlbany President Havidan Rodriguez. “The University’s nationally leading work in minority health disparities has never been more critical, and expanding the Hearst Fellows program will help us maximize our impact.”

Fellows reportedly get doctoral degrees in health disparity related fields in addition to training that includes experiential learning in community-based settings.

The Hearst Foundations’ grant works with a UAlbany led study commissioned by Governor Cuomo looking at the socioeconomic, environmental, and occupational factors that cause Latinx and Black populations to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

“The generosity of the Hearst Foundations allows us to increase our recruitment of engaged scholars and, through those scholars, develop a diverse workforce committed to understanding and responding to the widening health disparities gap,” said Lawrence M. Schell, Center director and distinguished professor of anthropology.

This is reportedly the Hearst Foundations’ third significant investment at UAlbany since joining the Minority Graduate Students in Public Health Endowed Scholarship Fund established in 1996 and the Endowed Scholarship Fund at the School of Social Welfare established in 2001 supporting 43 UAlbany students to date.

“UAlbany is attracting exceptional scholars who will help us understand and address health disparities in Black and Latinx communities. We are proud to support these Fellows as they launch their careers, ” said George Irish, Eastern Director of the Hearst Foundations.