: Many important health problems occur disproportionately among ethnic minorities and academic public health has an important role to play in addressing ethnic health disparities. Unfortunately, ethnic minority students are underrepresented in doctoral programs in schools of public health. Therefore, the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UMSPH), in order to increase the pool of URM (African American, Latino, and American Indian) students ready to compete for doctoral training in Public Health, is submitting this application in response to the NIH Bridges to the Doctoral Degree announcement. Specifically, the UMSPH will establish partnerships with Master's programs from Eastern Michigan University, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The proposed """"""""Michigan Bridge to the Doctorate Program"""""""" will support six (two per partner) students each year (tuition and wages for two years) reaching a steady state of twelve students by the second year of the program. Bridges students will be appointed as research assistants at their respective institutions during the academic year. Students will also participate in the Bridges Integrative Seminar (using a combination of video-taped lectures and a web-based program, """"""""Worktools"""""""") where they will be introduced to the five core areas of Public Health and important substantive public health issues as well as advice on graduate career development. During the summer between the first and second year of masters training Bridges students will spend two months in Ann Arbor conducting research with UMSPH faculty and taking advanced courses in biostatistics at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. At the end of the Michigan summer, students will be sent to the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care for an intensive one-week series of lectures on the conduct of responsible research. The objective is to enroll at least 33% (two of six each year) of the Bridges students in PhD programs at the UMSPH each year. Bridges students who matriculate to one of the five doctoral programs located in the UMSPH will be guaranteed five years of funding (tuition, salary, and health benefits) by Michigan's Graduate School to support work toward the PhD.
