Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science – a small, historically Black school born in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riots – has secured grants that will further two of its psychiatry programs amid a time of growth for the university.
The grants, distributed by the Department of Health Care Access and Information, are worth more than $4 million.
Of that amount, $1.05 million will be allocated toward CDU’s psychiatry residency program, while the remaining $3 million will be invested in its Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program.
The grants are a portion of a total of $37.6 million in awards approved for 15 organizations in California by the Department of Health Care Access and Information.
“California and the nation face a mental health crisis, which is why it’s so important we create a diverse mental health workforce,” Department of Health Care Access and Information Director Elizabeth Landsberg said in a statement. “These grants will support teaching institutions with resources to create and expand training programs to produce mental health professionals capable of providing quality care in communities most in need.”
CDU’s Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing’s mental health nurse practitioner program was initially awarded the program grant from 2020-2023.
The program, in its third year of funding, made this year’s $3 million expansion grant much more critical, as funds from the first round could have run dry otherwise, according to Trish Williams-Forde, an assistant professor who also is the director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program.
Diversity and
inclusion are woven
into the very fabric
of CDU.
Angela Minniefield
Charles R. Drew University
“Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science receives millions of dollars of grant awards to expand our academic health career education programs,” Williams-Forde said. “So yes, grant awards that are over $1 million are big figures for CDU. We have a five-year trajectory to expand CDU from a small university to a middle-size university, and the grant awards we received will help with our strategic University expansion goals.”
A total of 129 students are enrolled in the program, which offers small classroom sizes and a hybrid learning format. Williams-Forde said the $3 million grant would go toward the nurse practitioner program’s advertising and marketing efforts, faculty recruitment and salaries, student travel expenses, accreditation costs and other items. Students who will begin classes in the spring of next year will be the first group to benefit from the grant funding.
More funding
The funding comes as CDU continues to expand its curriculum and infrastructure.
Last year, the university received $50 million from the state to aid the construction of an approximately 100,000-square-foot health professions building; it will feature classrooms, anatomy labs, staff and faculty offices and common spaces.
In the announcement of the construction funds, CDU President and Chief Executive David Carlisle said that with the funding the university would seek to increase the number of Black and Latino medical graduates in the state.
“We are still very much in the planning and approval phase for this construction, but we are eager to move forward now that we have this historic greenlighting of the MD program,” Angela Minniefield, senior vice president of advancement and operations, said in a statement. “At the moment we are projecting a physical groundbreaking for some time in 2023 and looking forward to moving the program into the building when the structure opens as early as 2025.”
Minniefield added that in addition to the visual impact of the multi-story building, extra capacity for offices and learning environments will position the university for additional growth.
The building will house CDU’s first independent medical degree program, which was launched recently after receiving preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
“More than just a nebulous goal, we have had a large team working diligently for a few years to get us to the point where the university has earned preliminary accreditation for our college of medicine to launch this program in 2023 and start accepting applications now,” Minniefield said.
Expanding programs
The new program will be the first MD program launched at a historically Black institution in four decades in the country and will be the only such program offered west of the Mississippi River, according to Minniefield. She added that the university has been adding to its lineup of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs while expanding certificate programs.
CDU primarily serves minority populations, and according to its website, more than 80% of its students and 71% of its faculty are from communities of color. It is also a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and was founded to promote health equity for underserved populations, particularly in South Los Angeles.
“Diversity and inclusion are woven into the very fabric of CDU,” Minniefield said. “So, being able to create and train doctors of color who can practice in their communities is a remarkable achievement and significant step towards our vision of a world without health disparities.”
Further development is planned for the university; it is also working toward expanding its campus footprint through a 12.8-acre development consisting of the former Lincoln Elementary School site adjoining the campus. A transit-oriented health, education and wellness campus will be established through the project for Willowbrook and surrounding communities in South Los Angeles.
