Increasing minority participation in the fields of public health and preventive medicine is essential for success in eliminating health disparities that exist between populations. However, graduate programs in public health have not produced a significant number of minority graduates to impact these disparities. We describe a Centers for Disease Control and prevention funded graduate traineeship in eliminating health disparities in chronic disease. Because African Americans continue to represent a small proportion of public health workers, the traineeship has been designed specifically for African American graduate students in public health and preventive medicine residents. This presentation will describe the: (1) strategies used to recruit students; (2) main components of the traineeship; (3) supportive and collaborative relationships; and (4) methods used for and the purposes of evaluating both the process and impact of the traineeship. We believe training programs such as this one will make a significant contribution to continuing efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health. By building a more diverse and well trained public health workforce, we will be better suited to tackle the unique challenges posed by working closely with diverse communities.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to: (1) describe two strategies used to recruit African American students to the traineeship; (2) list the main components of the traineeship; (3) discuss how evaluation results will be used to impact the traineeship
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.