On Wednesday, Jan. 18, the Biden administration announced that 10 minority-serving institutions (MSIs) will receive about $75 million to recruit and teach their minority students in public health professions, aiming to increase representation. 

MSIs are universities and colleges that enroll a significant number of students from underrepresented groups. Including graduate and undergraduate, and full- and part-time students; these institutions have to be composed for at least 50% of a single minority or a combination of minorities. 

There is a variety of MSIs focusing on specific marginalized communities. The most popular are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which have been around for over 100 years, and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), which are a more recent designation. To learn more about what MSIs are and its types, click here.

According to Axios, messy data collection during the pandemic spread misinformation and prevented needed changes from happening in the public health sector. The lack of diversity of race, ethnicity, political ideologies and more have been exposed, and now efforts to increase representation have become unavoidable. 

Funding from the American Rescue Plan — from the Health and Human Services Department — earlier this year was dedicated to better public health information technology efforts. Now, those 10 MSIs will train more than 4,000 people over four years to teach, recruit, include and secure public health job opportunities for Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and many other groups, added Axios. 

To read more, click here.