This application requests support from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) to develop a Biomedical and Behavioral Faculty Development Endowment Program at Florida A&M University (FAMU). The overall objective of this endowment is to provide resources to enhance the health professions and graduate programs in the Colleges of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Arts and Sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), Schools of Nursing and Allied Health and Environmental Sciences Institute. This endowment will assist FAMU in its effort to recruit faculty from racial and ethnic minority and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups in the fields of biomedical and behavioral research and other areas of the scientific workforce. The following specific aims have been identified to achieve this objective: 1) expand recruitment efforts to attract outstanding qualified minority faculty in the health professions and graduate science programs; 2) retain existing faculty in the health professions and graduate Science programs; and 3) increase the University's endowment level. In an effort to recruit the most talented minority faculty, competitive incentives must be provided for start-up funds (i.e., supplies, small laboratory equipment). Faculty development opportunities will be offered to existing faculty (i.e., opportunities to attend scientific meetings and training in the new technologies). These faculty members will then train the graduate students in an effort to create a critical mass of future PhDs and other health professionals who will close the gap between health disparities that adversely affect minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged citizens in the nation.
