The proposed Texas EXPORT Center provides the foundation upon which the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth builds its strategic goal of increasing the number of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities in biomedical education, research and service. Thus, the following program aims have been established for the Training/Mentoring Core during award period of the EXPORT center: 1. To increase the pool of URM undergraduate students in biomedical and minority health research 2. To increase the pool of URM faculty in healthcare research 3. To increase the participation of URM students in Ph.D. granting programs. Each of these aims will be addressed by a series of program goals and objectives. The objective of developing a strong, minority-based cadre of research faculty from URM partner campuses represents a challenge that thus far has been elusive. The EXPORT Center activity has provided an incentive to target that objective once more, but in a new and less time-demanding way. Faculty on the undergraduate URM campuses will be invited to participate in a new and innovative program called Steps Toward Academic Research (STAR) that will take place on the UNTHSC campus designed to foster new collaborative health disparity research initiatives. In order to achieve our objective, we have established academic affiliations with Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA. Jackson State University, Jackson, MS., Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL. Texas Southern University, Houston, TX., Prairie View University, Prairie View, TX., Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX., Texas A&M University - Kingsville, Kingsville, TX., University of Texas - Brownsville, Brownsville, TX. St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX., Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, TX. UNTHSC has been successful in training URM students in biomedical research during summer months as part of the McNair and SMART programs. The Texas EXPORT Center will enhance these activities and focus on increasing the opportunities for URM students to enter biomedical Ph.D. programs in health disparity research areas. The expected outcome from the Education/Training Core will be to increase the number of minorities in health disparity areas, a significant challenge nationwide in the past decade and a pressing issue in Texas as this state's minority population continues to grow.
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