In light of our commitment to eliminating health disparities, the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH), under the auspices of the ASPH Diversity Committee and Chairperson Dean Marla Gold (Drexel University), began an initiative to provide information about the health disparities research activities of our member schools and diversity-related issues in public health.

This initiative is a venue for sharing our schools’ current health disparities research activities, as well as providing important information that will help diversify our schools’ faculty and student body, thereby advancing our schools’ capacity to eliminate U.S. health disparities.

The goals of this resource center are to:

• Disseminate best practices for minority faculty and student recruitment and retention;
• Facilitate increased research about health disparities;
• Encourage development and implementation of multicultural perspectives across curricula;
• Increase the cultural competence of faculty, staff, and students; and
• Create and maintain partnerships with minority health professions schools and other minority-based institutions.

The Diversity Resource Center serves as a resource hub for students, faculty, and other interested parties seeking to augment their knowledge base in racial and ethnic health disparities as they pertain to Schools of Public Health.

Historical Milestones on Eliminating Health Disparities

1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 provides that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

1981 - White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities established to strengthen the nation's HBCUs. The initial directive has been followed by presidential Executive Orders in 1989, 1993, and 2002 to incorporate a Presidential Advisory Board.

1985 - Public Health Service Task Force on Women's Health Issues publishes a comprehensive report on the health disparity challenges women face. This was one of the first reports of its kind from the Department of Health and Human Services to address a discrepancy in healthcare for a specific minority group and it spurred the inclusion of women in health studies prior to the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993.

1990 - Office of Minority Health and Research (OMHR) established by the NIH Director with influence from Congress.

1993 - NIH Revitalization Act - [pdf] directed the establishment of guidelines for inclusion of women and minorities in clinical research, providing "the Director of NIH shall ensure that (a) women are included as subjects in each project of research; and (b) members of minority groups are included in such research." Amended October 2001.

1998 - Commission on the Advancement Women & Minorities in Science, Engineering & Technology established to assess and advise on current programs in place for recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and minorities in science, engineering, and technology.

1998 - The ASPH Diversity Coucil was upgraded to a Committee, confirming the organization's committment to addressing racial and ethnic health disparities.

2000 - The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act created the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the NIH. The mission of the Center is to "fund research programs on health disparities and minority health; support training of members of health disparity populations as researchers; and provide education loan relief for health professionals who commit themselves to perform health disparities research. The Center will also coordinate all NIH research efforts in this area."

2001 - The President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans established "to examine the underlying causes of the existing education achievement gap between Hispanic American students and their peers."

2002 - The White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges & Universities was invoked to ensure that Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) have full access to the plethora of government funding available to higher-education institutions.

2002 - The Strategic Research Plan and Budget to Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities - [pdf] published by the NIH to "support and promote biomedical and behavioral research, research training, research capacity, and research information dissemination, with the goal of improving the health status of minorities and other health disparity populations." A follow-up report was issued in 2006 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

2005 - ASPH/Kellogg Taskforce convened to "engage accredited schools and programs of public health, in partnership with communities, as leaders in teaching, research, practice, service, and advocacy related to achieving the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities and their root cause—social injustice."

2006 - The ASPH/Kellogg Minority Faculty Retreat was convened for faculty to collectively focus on issues that affect them and their careers and, by extension, health disparities in the general population.

2008 - The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) publishes a report entitled School of Public Health Goals Towards Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities - [pdf] to address the objectives of Schools of Public Health in eliminating health disparities.

2011 – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services releases the National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity and the accompanying HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.