HRSA Grant to Support CDU Public Health Programs
CDU has been awarded a grant in the amount of $1.4 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The award will support the CDU Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) and the Master of Public Health (MPH) programs.
The HRSA Public Health Scholarship Program (PHSP) funds will support 60% of the tuition cost per year, plus funds for educational supplies per semester for 20 BSPH juniors and seniors and 10 MPH students for the three years of the HRSA PHSP award through September 2025.
The award will also fund a part-time PHSP Project Manager to manage, support and facilitate the placement of CDU public health students in community health field experience sites in urban underserved communities, and support the CDU Student Services office in the job placement efforts of our public health graduates in the public health workforce.
“The potential positive outcome of this award is an increase in the recruitment, retention, graduation, and job placement of our culturally diverse underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate PH students in the public health workforce,” shared Dr. Sondos Islam, Chair of the Department of Urban Public Health (DUPH) and Director of the MPH and BSPH Programs in Urban Health Disparities. “Our CDU public health graduates will strengthen the public health workforce by being equipped with the knowledge and skills to address health disparities and the social determinants of health that impact the health and quality of life of urban historically marginalized and underserved communities, and to advocate for health equity and social/environmental justice, all of which are critically important especially in these challenging and strenuous times.”
This award for CDU’s students in the Public Health program adds to the University’s success in recruiting and graduating ethnically diverse health profession students to transform the Public Health (PH) workforce by targeting the unmet need for culturally competent PH graduates to address the health needs of communities in medically underserved areas.