Why Your Gift Matters
The University of Kentucky Center for Health Equity Transformation’s mission is to synergize innovative, transdisciplinary and impactful research and training to improve the health of the most vulnerable residents of Kentucky and beyond. Kentuckians suffer tremendous health inequities—among the highest national rates of the leading causes of death, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological disease, substance use, diabetes and obesity. CHET researchers aim to go beyond documenting health disparities to reduce or eliminate these health problems through intervention, implementation, dissemination and translational science.
CHET provides training and professional development to support innovative, transdisciplinary science careers for the next generation of health equity scholars. We developed the Students Participating as Ambassadors for Research in KY (SPARK) program, which trains diverse undergraduates to undertake impactful research in their home communities. Our extensive graduate research assistant training program engages five to six students from across the university; they are assigned research and service responsibilities, including involvement in ongoing health equity research projects, engaging in recruitment efforts, training our SPARKlers and assisting with budgeting. Our postdoctoral training program focuses on addressing the tremendous burden of cancer in our rural regions.
We enhance the impact of our transformative research and training through our programming. These activities include pilot research project funding; a speaker and seminar series; student, trainee and faculty awards, including the Changemaker series; research method workshops; community outreach and engagement; and other creative programming.
We welcome your support in our efforts to transform health and achieve equity by making a gift to the CHET Support Fund.