ANNUAL REPORT 2007 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ANNUAL REPORT 2007 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ANNUAL REPORT 2007 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
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[give & grow]<br />
23<br />
BRINGING <strong>NEW</strong> VOICES TO HEALTH<br />
CARE POLICY<br />
Imagine that the newest perspective in the<br />
national debate over health policy comes<br />
from those who stand to gain the most from<br />
quality health care: minorities – Hispanics<br />
and Native Americans in particular. Now<br />
imagine those people are UNM students.<br />
With the help of a new $18.1 million grant<br />
from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,<br />
this scenario promises to become reality<br />
within five years.<br />
The grant seeds a center for health policy<br />
at UNM that will prepare minority doctoral<br />
students for leadership in health policy<br />
formation. Through recruitment and<br />
stimulating academic offerings, the graduate<br />
program will bring in top students of color<br />
who aspire to a career in this field. The center<br />
will also conduct independent research<br />
on how current health policy affects minority<br />
populations and spotlight these issues<br />
in national conferences and workshops.<br />
“When it comes to health, one size does not<br />
fit all,” says RWJF President and CEO Risa<br />
Lavisso-Mourey. “We need to nurture and<br />
support a new generation of health policy<br />
leaders with diverse perspectives.”<br />
Robert Otto Valdez has been named the executive<br />
director of the Robert Wood Johnson<br />
Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM.<br />
He joins the University after leading his own<br />
research and analysis firm and having also<br />
served as a senior health scientist with the<br />
RAND Health Sciences Program in Santa<br />
Monica, California and Washington, D.C.<br />
“We are delighted that Dr. Valdez<br />
will be leading the effort to attract and<br />
support a new generation of health policy<br />
leaders with...diverse perspectives,“<br />
Lavisso-Moure says.<br />
The RWJF Center for Health Policy<br />
provides a physical, educational and cultural<br />
home for young minority leaders and others,<br />
offering them the training, research and<br />
opportunities they need to shape the national<br />
health policy debate. As a University-wide<br />
interdisciplinary research organization<br />
dedicated to addressing the social, behavioral<br />
and economic factors affecting health<br />
and health care, the center emphasizes<br />
applying social science therories and methods<br />
to reduce or elminate disparities of health<br />
in our population and in the medical services<br />
available to minorities. Through its students<br />
and programs the Robert Wood Johnson<br />
Foundation Center for Health Policy will<br />
serve as a national resource by increasing the<br />
number and diversity of policy professionals<br />
who can exercise leadership in improving<br />
present health policy and practice.<br />
DEVELOPMENT
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