UNC Board of Governors HMSI Committee
Receives $6M in Funding to Fight COVID-19
N.C. Policy Collaboratory Awards $1M each
to the Six Historically Minority-Serving Institutions
JASON TYSON
CHAPEL HILL, NC – The UNC Board of Governors announced today that it
will partner with the N.C. Policy Collaboratory at UNC-Chapel Hill
to award $6 million in COVID-19 funding to the UNC System’s six
historically minority-serving institutions.
The Board’s Committee on Historically Minority-Serving Institutions
(HMSIs) was established in 2018 to support six UNC System
institutions – Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State
University, N.C. A&T State University, North Carolina Central
University, UNC Pembroke, and Winston-Salem State University.
“I am very excited about the progress of the HMSI Committee and the
work they are doing to impact our communities and advance our
institutions,” said Board Chair Randy Ramsey. “Collaborations such
as this will be vitally important in our continuing fight against
the coronavirus.”
Darrell Allison, chair of the HMSI Committee, said the partnership
will award approximately $1 million to each university to support
research and activities that help fight the spread of the virus.
“This is yet another opportunity for the UNC System to show the
meaningful impact that our historically minority-serving
institutions are making in their respective regions and communities
they serve,” said Allison. “I am confident that this partnership and
these programs will provide real-life solutions in the fight against
COVID-19, today, and could be a model for how our state can more
effectively confront tomorrow’s crises as well.”
Each institution will participate in a variety of COVID-19
activities, including research of antibodies, community testing, and
other related activities that support minority and rural
populations.
Dr. Jeff Warren, executive director of N.C. Policy Collaboratory,
said, given the greater number of African-Americans and minorities
affected by the virus, he believes this partnership will impact
parts of North Carolina in a positive way.
“One of the first calls I received after the $29 million research
package was approved by the General Assembly and the Governor was
from Darrell Allison,” said Dr. Warren. “From our first
conversation, it was clear we were both well aware that these
campuses, and the communities they serve, represented areas of the
State hardest hit from this pandemic. This investment builds on
forward-thinking research already occurring on all six of these
campuses.”
The Collaboratory recently received $29 million to study treatment,
community testing and prevention, as well as the public health and
economic impact, of COVID-19 under a $1.5 billion coronavirus relief
package approved last month by state legislators. The
Collaboratory’s COVID-19 research projects will provide new data and
information to state lawmakers and policymakers to help guide the
state’s response.
Here’s an overview of some of the proposed research and activities
to be conducted by each institution, through this partnership:
ECSU will focus on two approaches in the fight against COVID-19. The
university will work to enhance capacity and infrastructure to
support COVID-19 response, recovery, and resilience for racial and
ethnic minority, socially vulnerable, and rural communities in
northeastern North Carolina by establishing ECSU as a regional site
for COVID-19 testing and as the hub for drone delivery, transporting
essentials such as PPE and critical medical supplies to the most
vulnerable populations in the region.
FSU will focus on a four-pronged approach that will include COVID-19
coordinating care and testing for underserved and vulnerable
populations; developing a nucleus for a COVID-19 serological testing
center; developing noninvasive, rapid risk assessment for
symptomatic patients; and adding to the Social Vulnerability Index
research for Cumberland County, which will examine the COVID-19
impacts on disadvantaged populations in the region.
N.C. A&T will fund multi-research projects, addressing COVID-19
studies that include food and animal testing across the state; an
affordable fever detection system for K-12; efforts to mitigate
mortality rates among older adults in nursing homes and residential
care facilities; the design of an anti-viral nanoparticle that can
kill the coronavirus; and an economic impact study of the virus in
the Piedmont Triad region.
NCCU will create the Advanced Center for COVID-19 Related
Disparities (ACCORD) and conduct multidisciplinary research to study
the public health and economic impact of COVID-19 in underserved
communities in North Carolina. Specifically, the center will
facilitate nasal swab testing in 7 counties, including Anson,
Cabarrus, Durham, Granville, Halifax, Rowan and Vance and leverage
outreach programs that focus on culturally sensitive and effective
messaging to community groups and organizations.
UNCP will develop an epidemiologic transmission-dynamic model of
COVID-19 in rural settings, such as Robeson County, and examine the
unique challenges these areas face in terms of disease transmission
and mitigation efforts, including extended family and rural cultural
dynamics; the need to travel beyond county boundaries for employment
opportunities; strained health care resources; and the lack of
industry and infrastructure that reliably support remote employment.
The university will also study the cognitive and affective
influences on prevention practices, including vaccination.
WSSU is building on a current NIH-funded pilot study on campus that
explores the feasibility of training HBCU students as community
health workers to deliver evidence-based interventions to address
chronic disease. In addition, faculty will engage the Hispanic and
African-American communities to better understand the long-term
impact on university enrollments and the probability of ongoing
social and economic mobility in these communities. A third study
will also explore to what extent poverty, disability and minority
status relate to COVID-related disparities for vulnerable minority
populations in the Piedmont Triad area.
The N.C. Policy Collaboratory was created by the N.C. General
Assembly in 2016 to facilitate the dissemination of the research and
policy expertise of the UNC System for practical use by State and
local government. The COVID-19 research initiatives conducted at all
campuses across the UNC System in conjunction with the N.C. Policy
Collaboratory must be completed by December 30, 2020 per federal
COVID-19 funding requirements established by the CARES Act.
JASON TYSON
Director of Media Relations
|
UNC Board of Governors HMSI Committee Awards
$610,000 in Funding to UNC Asheville to
Fight COVID-19
JOSH ELLIS JUNE 12, 2020
Associate Vice President for Media Relations
CHAPEL HILL, NC - The UNC Board of Governors announces that the
University of North Carolina Asheville will receive $610,000 in
funding, through its recently announced partnership with the N.C.
Policy Collaboratory at UNC-Chapel Hill, to help fight COVID-19.
The announcement was made during today’s meeting of the Board’s
Committee on Historically Minority-Serving Institutions (HMSIs), and
follows an earlier announcement that six UNC System institutions -
Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, N.C.
A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, UNC
Pembroke and Winston-Salem State University - received $1 million
each to fight the spread of COVID-19.
“We must continue to make the appropriate investments in
institutions like UNC Asheville. This funding will not only help
boost the university, but it will effectively help a number of
communities, cities, and surrounding counties in the entire mountain
region of our state through various projects,” said Darrell Allison,
chair of committee.
UNC Asheville’s project proposal encompasses three specific
components:
· To initiate a WNC University Health Ambassador program to engage
campus communities in rapidly adopting safe, evidence-based
practices to establish a culture of safety on six regional campuses
in the mountains.
· To research and reduce the impact of social isolation on
well-being by rapidly escalating the roll out of the Social Bridging
Initiative. Designed to increase connection of socially-isolated
individuals, especially older adults, the Social Bridging Initiative
utilizes trained wellness volunteers to link people to community
resources to reduce isolation, lower risk of COVID 19 infection,
increase access to telehealth services and increase wellness through
access to programming and requested resources.
· To conduct a statewide study of comorbidity for individuals who
have died from COVID-19.
“For the better part of a month, Board of Governor Darrel Allison
and I have been discussing ways to engage our UNC System campuses to
provide impactful research and outreach within our western rural
communities,” said Jeff Warren, executive director of the N.C.
Policy Collaboratory. “In short order, Chancellor Cable identified
three COVID-related studies, in partnership with other western
campuses and MAHEC (Mountain Area Health Education Center), that
will provide critical data on the impact of COVID-19 in the region
and the state as well as a goal to reduce risks and rates of
infection.”
UNC Asheville will partner with the Mountain Area Health Education
Center (MAHEC) on numerous aspects of the project. The NC Center for
Health and Wellness (NCCHW) at UNC Asheville will lead the research
and evaluation elements of this project in collaboration with UNC
Asheville faculty from UNC Asheville’s Applied Social Sciences
program. The project is also being supported by other members of the
faculty, affiliates of the university and undergraduate researchers
from the health and wellness, sociology, political science,
economics and statistics sectors of UNCA.
“We are deeply grateful for Board of Governor's member Darrell
Allison's leadership in support of UNC Asheville's excellence in
public health research. UNC Asheville has a deeply-rooted tradition
of applied research among our faculty and students with more than
65% of our undergraduates completing original research before they
graduate,” said UNC Asheville Chancellor Nancy J. Cable. “These
initiatives, in partnership with MAHEC, align with the University’s
mission and further amplifies the important role of the North
Carolina Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville as a state
hub for innovative, evidence-based healthy-living initiatives that
work to prevent chronic conditions and reduce disability among all
North Carolinians.”
The Collaboratory recently received $29 million, under a $1.5
billion coronavirus relief package approved last month by state
legislators, to study treatment, community testing and prevention,
and the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19. The
Collaboratory’s COVID-19 research projects will provide new data and
information to state lawmakers and policymakers to help guide the
state’s response.
The N.C. Policy Collaboratory was created by the N.C. General
Assembly in 2016 to facilitate the dissemination of the research and
policy expertise of the UNC System for practical use by State and
local government. The COVID-19 research initiatives conducted at all
campuses across the UNC System in conjunction with the N.C. Policy
Collaboratory must be completed by December 30, 2020 per federal
COVID-19 funding requirements established by the CARES Act. |