Dr. Lee Green, a professor of health and kinesiology at Texas A&M University, says health disparities research represents a significant opportunity for institutions like his that have never focused on minority health issues. The board of regents at Texas A&M has recently approved plans by the university to establish a health disparities research center. Such a center is expected to allow researchers to collaborate with researchers at historically Black Prairie View A&M University and the state's Hispanic-serving institutions, according to Green.
He believes that schools, such as Texas A&M, which are newcomers to minority health and health disparities research typically have not focused on those areas because they didn't have faculty members who were interested in the research. Texas A&M hired Green away from the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2002 so that he could help the school establish a health disparities program.
"This is a new initiative for Texas A&M. We see it as a way to build relationships with the Black and Latino communities and the minority-serving schools," Green says.
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
