Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 January 2010 — JABSOM gets $973K for Native Hawaiian Center [ARTICLE]

JABSOM gets $973K for Native Hawaiian Center

The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's John A. Bums School of Medicine has received $973,825 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellenee through June 2012. The new funding will create at least six faculty and three staff positions to carry out initiatives to recmit and retain Native Hawaiian students in medicine and other health professions in Hawai'i. The center, established more than 15 years ago, is part of the medieal school's Department of Native Hawaiian Health, the only medical school department in the country dedicated to the health of a native population. "Native Hawaiians are highly underrepresented in health professions careers, particularly in medicine," said Dr. Nanette Judd,

director of the center and of the 'Imi Ho'ōla Post-Baccalaureate Program. "The vision of the Center of Excellenee is to promote the physical and mental heahh of all Native Hawaiians by improving the recruitment and retention of health professionals of Native Hawaiian ancestry."