{"id":69296,"date":"2015-06-11T11:16:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=69296"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:29:12","slug":"sph-named-center-of-excellence-for-maternal-and-child-health-program","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2015\/sph-named-center-of-excellence-for-maternal-and-child-health-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Maternal and Child Health Program Named ‘Center of Excellence’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 11, 2015<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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The School of Public Health\u2019s Maternal and Child Health program has been awarded a $1.75 million grant and designated a national \u201cCenter of Excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which established the Center of Excellence program to \u201cimprove the public\u2019s access to quality, culturally appropriate health care by increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who enter and successfully graduate from health professions training programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Principal investigator Lois McCloskey, a professor of maternal and child health in the Department of Community Health Sciences, said SPH is one of 13 schools of public health to earn current recognition as a Center of Excellence. It is SPH\u2019s fourth award of its kind, McCloskey said.<\/p>\n

The five years of funding that accompany the award ($350,000 per year) are intended to help SPH \u201cimprove information resources, clinical education, curricula, and cultural competency as they relate to minority health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the HRSA, the Centers of Excellence serve as \u201cinnovative resource and education centers for the recruitment, training, and retention of underrepresented minority students and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCloskey said the new grant will build on SPH\u2019s foundation as the largest MCH\/MPH program in the country, with particular focus on practice-based education; diversity, inclusion, and health equity initiatives; and educating students to put the lifecourse perspective into practice.<\/p>\n

It will also enhance curricular, research, and practice opportunities for students concentrating in maternal and child health, with multiple initiatives to recruit and support students of underrepresented minority groups.<\/p>\n

The funding will also enable the MCH program to continue its ongoing policy of awarding annual fellowships to 10 students to work on faculty-led research teams. Another 10 students will receive annual practice fellowships to work for a year at BPHC\/Boston Health Start Initiative sites, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health\u2019s Division of Pregnancy, Infancy and Early Childhood, or the National Institute for Quality in Children\u2019s Health (NIQCH).<\/p>\n

Said McCloskey, \u201cWe are especially excited this time around in light of how complementary this grant is to the School\u2019s renewed focus on lifecourse science and practice, diversity, inclusion, and health equity under Dean Galea\u2019s leadership.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Centers of Excellence serve as \u201cinnovative resource and education centers for the recruitment, training and retention of underrepresented minority students and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7185,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2258,506],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[488],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/69296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69296"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/69296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174501,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/69296\/revisions\/174501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=69296"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=69296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}