Ponce Health Sciences University gets $21.4M grant to fight health disparities
The Health Disparities Specialty Center encompasses five key components and three research projects.
Ponce Health Sciences University’s (PHSU) Research Centers at Minority Institutions Program (RCMI) has been awarded $21.4 million in funding to continue its work as the Center for Health Disparities over the next five years, the institution announced.
The support will allow PHSU to strengthen its research infrastructure and advance its goals of improving minority health and reducing health disparities.
Richard J. Noel Jr., principal investigator at the center, said that over 38 years, the RCMI Program has been instrumental in recruiting experts, building modern facilities and acquiring equipment that have boosted PHSU’s competitiveness in science, health and mental health research.
“This support has resulted in a significant increase in scientific publications, presentations at international conferences, and obtaining important funding awards,” said Noel.
The Health Disparities Specialty Center encompasses five key components and three research projects. The components include an Administrative Core led by Noel Jr. and Kenira J. Thompson, which seeks to improve minority health and program efficiency. Additionally, the Research Resource Center, led by Vanessa Rivera, Richard Noel, and James Porter, provides equipment and resources for medical research.
Another key component is the Strategic Pipeline for Academic Research Career Success (SPARCS), which supports new researchers under the direction of Noel Jr. and Guillermo Armaiz-Peña.
The center also includes the Community Training Institute for Health Disparities, led by Julio Jiménez and Melissa Marzán, which seeks to empower communities, and a faculty recruitment core focused on attracting researchers in areas such as cancer biology and neuroscience.
Research projects include studies on sex differences in cocaine use under chronic stress, led by Marian Sepúlveda; a wellness improvement program for people with serious mental illness, led by Eliut Rivera-Segarra; and a study on severe persistent asthma, under the direction of Marcos Ramos and Wilfredo De Jesús.
The center “will continue to be a leader in the fight against health inequalities, not only through cutting-edge research, but also by training the next generation of scientists. With this funding, PHSU reaffirms its commitment to positively impacting public health in Puerto Rico,” said Thompson, who is also president of the Ponce Research Institute.
PHSU partners with University of Cambridge on MBA program
In related news, PHSU announced it has launched a continuing education pipeline with the University of Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) in Cambridge, England.
The arrangement will provide PHSU’s administrators, who are accepted into CJBS’ Executive MBA program, with new skills to enhance the school’s student experience and academic offerings. It will also allow the administrators to develop international awareness and relationships to support PHSU’s efforts to address global issues in medical education.
“To meet the expanding wellness needs of the world’s populations, medical schools must increase the scope, quality and access to health care education,” said Dr. David Lenihan, president of PHSU. “To achieve this, our administrators and executives are diversifying their outlooks and amplifying their skill sets with CJBS’ MBA degree.”
“The MBA education will give them essential entrepreneurship and business knowledge to achieve the best outcomes possible for our programs and students. It will also help to amplify PHSU’s delivery of top-tier, forward-thinking medical education in the United States,” he added.
“Very quickly, I was able to develop business expertise that made me more confident in the day-to-day operations of my current role,” said Thompson, who is a 2023 graduate of the CJBS MBA program. “As the CJBS program progressed, I was introduced to business ideas, study areas and topics that have improved the way I lead our teams in St. Louis and Ponce, Puerto Rico.”
Two PHSU administrators, including Thompson, have earned their MBAs from CJBS. Two additional administrators are completing the program, and two more will begin in August.
PHSU will send 10 of its team members to CJBS for the school’s MBA program.
