Drs. Kristen Wells (psychology associate professor and JDP faculty member) and Guadalupe X. Ayala (public health professor and JDP graduate) are co-PIs on this $19.9 million prestigious award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. See below for more details.

Featured SDSU NewsCenter Article:

“San Diego State University has received a $19.9 million award—one of the largest in university history—to create a new center for transdisciplinary research on health disparities throughout San Diego and Imperial counties.

The SDSU HealthLINK Center will build collaborative partnerships between the university and community health entities and dramatically enhance research infrastructure at the university, bolstering critical health research and services and improving the well-being of the region’s most underserved populations. 
 
The center brings together more than two dozen faculty engaged in the high-impact, community-centered and cross-disciplinary collaborations that are key to the university’s growing research enterprise. 
 
The award is the largest National Institutes of Health grant ever awarded to SDSU, and the second largest grant in university history behind only the $30 million federal grant SDSU received in 2014 to establish a campus in the country of Georgia.
 
“This a wonderful recognition of the faculty’s excellence in health disparities research, and a significant opportunity to build on that excellence so that SDSU can remain a leader in this field for years to come,” said Stephen Welter, SDSU’s vice president for research.
 
The five-year award is part of an effort by NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to support the research enterprise of minority-serving institutions like SDSU. The university is a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution, and 31.5 percent of first-year students are underrepresented minorities. 
 
Public health professor Guadalupe X. Ayala and psychology associate professor Kristen J. Wells are leading the project, which promises to be an economic driver for the region.”
 

Click here to read the full news story.