Center Establishes Minority Fellowships for Postdoctoral Research into Health Disparities
The Harvard Center for Society and Health at HSPH will launch a pilot program next year to train minority scientists in researching causes of health disparities among groups of people. The postdoctoral fellowships will receive funding from the Center for the Advancement of Health in Washington, DC, an independent non-profit organization supported by foundations and public agencies.
The center is offering a $1.5 million, three-year grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Fellowships will be established at HSPH, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and the Morgan State University Center for Urban Health Assessment, Evaluation and Policy.
"There are not many programs at the postdoctoral level that offer the opportunity to do this kind of research," said Ichiro Kawachi, director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health. "The persistence of health outcome disparities in the US is a problem that needs to be addressed."
The grant was announced at the start of the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Boston in November.
The scholars will come from a variety of disciplines such as epidemiology, economics, and sociology. They will be asked to examine the causes of health disparities by race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status and consider policy solutions. Following the pilot phase of the new program, the Kellogg Foundation Minority Scholars in Health Disparities will study at a number of US sites and collaborate with similar programs in other countries.
The Harvard Center for Society and Health, with the assistance of the Center for the Advancement of Health and an advisory committee, will select two scholars for a two-year program of research, training and mentoring by site faculty starting next fall. The site directors and scholars will also participate in program orientation, workshops, and symposia.
Scholars are eligible for stipends of up to $50,000 a year for the two years of their fellowship, plus research and travel expenses to attend program meetings.
For further information and application guidelines, contact Barbara
Krimgold at bkrimgold@cfah.org
or visit the Center for the Advancement of Health website at www.cfah.org.
Deadline for receipt of applications is February 1, 2001
