The proposed Center of Excellence on Diabetes in Americans of Mexican Descent aims to conductresearch on the physiologic progression to diabetes and its complications among Mexican Americans,and to develop diabetes prevention strategies and test innovative approaches to effective interventions ina minority population severely affected by type 2 diabetes. This Center proposes an administrative core, aresearch core including three research projects and two pilot studies, a training core and a communityengagement core.The purpose of the administrative core is to oversee the allocation of support and resources to each of the 4Center of Excellence (COE) cores and to coordinate their interaction so that they operate with maximumsynergy and minimum duplication of effort. The Brownsville Campus of the University of Texas School ofPublic Health is the primary institution for this application, and the partner institution is the geographicallyadjacent University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC). Faculty from the sistercampus of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston are also participating in thisapplication. These organizations are all currently partners in the existing Excellence in Partnerships forCommunity Outreach and Research on Disparities in Health and Training (EXPORT) grant funded in March2003. Dr. Colom and Dr. McCormick are the Co-Principal Investigators (Co-Pis) of the existing EXPORTgrant and will continue those roles in this application. Letters of support from the Provost and President ofUTB are in appendix 1. Letters of support from appropriate University of Texas School of Public Healthofficials are also found in Appendix 1.The administrative core will be responsible for the allocation and oversight of all Center resources andfacilitate communication between the COE components. The direction of the COE will be under theExecutive Committee consisting of the PI who is also the Center Director, and the principal investigators ofthe COE cores and the PI of the UTB/TSC partner. The administrative core will establish a ScientificAdvisory Committee (SAC) that will meet annually to review the progress and content of the program. It willconsist of regional experts in the key disciplines of this application The administrative core will also beresponsible, along with the Community Engagement Core, for maintaining current community relationships,and for administering the functions of the Community Advisory Board, currently fully functional for the ProjectEXPORT. The Administrative Core will be responsible for establishing research relationships with the otherCenters of Excellence in the NCMHD network. The Executive Committee in conjunction with the SAC willprovide oversight and support for the selection of the core center faculty and the minority healthdisparities research to be conducted within the center. The Administrative Core will work with the SAC toplan and support new applications for research based on the pilots from EXPORT and from datagenerated from this exploratory COE. Finally the Administrative Core will be responsible for maintainingthe existing website for the Center of Excellence.
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