The three schools will use a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research to create the Center for Innovation in Health Disparities Research, which will start operation this fall.
Chris McQuiston, director of UNC-CH's center, said the overall goal of the entire center is to reduce health disparities by increasing the capacity for culturally competent nursing research.
"By cultural competence, we mean knowledge, sensitivity and collaboration with minority communities in all aspects of research," she said.
Each campus involved in the project will house its part of the center and provide different elements to the research. The UNC-CH center will be located in the Center for Chronic Illness at the UNC School of Nursing.
The project will focus on advancing the cultural competence of all students and faculty and increasing the number of minority nurse researchers while developing innovative strategies for conducting research with racial, ethnic and culturally diverse populations.
"Health disparity is a serious problem in the United States," McQuiston stated in an e-mail Saturday. "It results from complex factors including social status, social connectedness and health-related behaviors that are all influenced by culture."
UNC-CH invited N.C. Central and WSSU to partner in the center because of their long histories in working closely with minority communities.
"We also wanted to build on existing relationships," McQuiston stated. "We each bring a different type of expertise to the center. That is one of its strengths -- we will learn from and teach each other as we share a vision to reduce health disparities and promote social change."
The goals of the center include mentoring through seminars and workshops, increasing the number of minority researchers, facilitating project and grant development, creating innovative methodologies in health disparities and cross-cultural research and creating an infrastructure to support and sustain partnerships.
