Federal Grant to Association of American Indian Physicians Expands Student Programs

Native News Network Staff in Native Health. Discussion »

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA – The Association of American Indian Physicians is launching an expanded effort on student programs. Called the "Advances in Indian Health Care" program, the expansion is designed to support and encourage American Indian/Alaska Native youth in pursuit of careers in healthcare, allied health professions and biomedical research.

Advances in Indian Health Care Program

The Association of American Indian Physicians was recently awarded a Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health grant to enhance its student program effort.

“Throughout our 41 year history, the Association of American Indian Physicians has made it a priority to offer educational opportunities and programs to Native youth,”

said Margaret Knight, the organization's executive director.

“We will be growing those efforts and helping more young people through the "Advances in Indian Health Care" program over the course of the next three years.”

Knight said the new grant will be paired with a financial commitment from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community for the Association of American Indian Physicians student program. She said the goals of the expanded program are to:

The Association of American Indian Physicians will be offering a National Native American Youth Initiative for high school juniors and seniors interested in health careers in Summer 2013, multiple Pre-Admission workshops for undergraduate and graduate students planning admission to medical school, multiple Cross Cultural Medicine Workshops for medical students, and the AAIP Annual Meeting and Health Conference for students and health professionals.

“The Association of American Indian Physicians hopes to promote health and improve health equity for tribal populations by providing health professions workforce development programs for students and healthcare professionals,”

said Program Director Gary Lankford.

posted November 20, 2012 7:10 am est