School of Community and Global Health participates in NIH grant to promote diversity in biomedical sciences

Claremont Graduate University’s School of Community and Global Health (SCGH) has become a partner with California State University Northridge (CSUN), which has received a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to develop, implement, and evaluate approaches for encouraging minorities to pursue biomedical research careers.

The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) grant is part of a five year, $31 million NIH initiative to promote diversity in biomedical sciences within the university system.

“Diversity is a priority to NIH and something SCGH is thrilled about promoting,” said SCGH Professor Alan Stacy, who assisted with the grant application and will be involved in its implementation. “The grant is also very important for diversity in academic health areas since the pipeline of underrepresented minority researchers and teachers in applicant pools has often not reflected proportions in the population. As suggested by NIH, there are not enough of these individuals going into biomedical research fields.”

CSUN will serve as the lead institution for the grant project. Claremont Graduate University is one of several NIH-funded research universities that partners with CSUN to link promising students to NIH and other health-related research projects. Students will receive a stipend from the BUILD grant to obtain valuable experience in health-related research at CGU and other universities, helping to prepare them for advanced research in biomedical areas.

Based at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, its program offers masters degrees in public health and a PhD in health promotion sciences. It’s leading faculty researches emerging world issues and focuses on preventative illnesses and diseases within communities around the world.

The National Institute of Health is a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services and is the nation’s medical research agency.