The deadline to apply for EnRICH's second cohort is January 15, 2021.
Healthcare innovation, particularly in underserved communities disproportionately affected by the ongoing health crisis, has been crucial. Part of this innovation involves making sure people of color have access to funding and are present in medical conversations and decisions.
Jackson State University and University of Kentucky have partnered with the Kentucky-based, NIH-funded healthcare accelerator XlerateHealth to create a program, called EnRICH, that will bolster and commercialize innovative healthcare ideas by students at historically Black colleges and universities. This program’s goal is to drive equity, diversity and inclusion in healthcare while equipping faculty and students at HBCUs with the skills they need to be at the forefront of this progress. The program will support the initial costs of intellectual property protection, participation in a full accelerator, access to mentors and more. The deadline to apply for its second cohort is January 15, 2021.
One of the program’s first cohort’s participants, Sheila Malone, a public health student at Jackson State University, shared that the program helped her understand the vast possibilities for using her degree. “This program really gives you the next step,” says Malone, sharing that it helped her connect with expert mentors and receive the business training that many people in health fields don’t receive.
HBCU schools have been and will continue to be leaders in healthcare. Earlier this year, Dr. Donald Alcendor, an associate professor at Meharry, developed a Covid-19 antiviral drug and penned a paper highlighting the racial disparities associated with the virus. And in September, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ pledged $100 million to four HBCU medical schools over the next four years. The EnRICH accelerator program is another step toward facilitating these culturally minded healthcare breakthroughs.
