The target audience includes junior faculty, URM post-doctoral fellows, college students, physicians, nurses, community health workers, community based organizations, community providers, faith-based leaders, pharmacists, pharmaceutical industry, healthcare systems leaders, educators, and political leaders.

The problem of lack of diversity in academic medicine has not subsided in spite of many efforts to increase the ranks of underrepresented minorities. African Americans, Latino and Native Americans are approximately 8% of the faculty at U.S. medical schools, yet they represent over 29% of the American population.1 Projections suggest that the proportion of minority medical school graduates will be approximately 15%, while the proportion of minorities in the general population will continue to increase, widening the lack of representation of these populations in science and medicine.2 Evidence shows that minority scientists and clinicians are needed to attend to the needs of the growing population.3,4 The crisis intensifies when one looks at the disparities that exist in the rates of disease among populations, which is well evident in the high rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD), HIV, cancer, diabetes and their associated risk factors among the US minority populations.5-13 Capable, highly- motivated and well-trained underrepresented minorities are needed because minority research professionals are more likely to work in areas related to underserved minorities and low-income populations.14
TRANSPORT provides a foundation for growing and developing a diverse biomedical research workforce that will position Downstate as a national leader in translational disparities and population health research. Our efforts focus on recruiting and training underrepresented minority (URM) junior faculty, postdoctoral candidates and undergraduate students who come from Brooklyn and other communities that are vulnerable to health disparities. The lack of minorities in science and medicine is one of the most important factors that produce health disparities, therefore, TRANSPORT is needed to fill this critical gap and to ensure that opportunities such as those provided through endowment income exist to support and retain qualified URMs into the health disparities research workforce.
As the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, Downstate is committed to identifying and training new investigators that reflect the sociodemographic composition of the communities to enable them to develop successful academic careers in health disparities research. This mission is consistent with this RFA: to enhance the academic environment at Downstate that will lead to of qualified scientific faculty with exceptional expertise in health disparities research.
Our goal is to engage key stakeholders in addressing this critical issue. Therefore, the target audience includes junior faculty, URM post-doctoral fellows, college students, physicians, nurses, community health workers, community based organizations, community providers, faith-based leaders, pharmacists, pharmaceutical industry, healthcare systems leaders, educators, and political leaders.