UCLA

Reducing health disparities is a national public health priority. Latinos represent the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States and suffer disproportionately from poor health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease risk. Academic training programs are an opportunity for reducing health disparities, in part by increasing the diversity of the public health workforce and by incorporating training designed to develop a skill set to address health disparities. This article describes the Training and Career Development Program at the UCLA Center for Population Health and Health Disparities: a multilevel, transdisciplinary training program that uses a community-engaged approach to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in two urban Mexican American communities. Results suggest that this program is effective in enhancing the skill sets of traditionally underrepresented students to become health disparities researchers and practitioners.