# Obesity Health Disparities Research PRIDE Program (OHD PRIDE)

> **NIH NIH R25** · UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MED CTR · 2021 · $210,847

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Numerous reports have called for new interventions to prevent obesity and mitigate the current high rates of
obesity and their projected rise. In order to achieve these aims, a diverse biomedical workforce in the United
States is needed, and this need is particularly pronounced among individuals from underrepresented groups.
In the 2016 report “Charting the Future Together: The NHLBI Strategic Vision,” the National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute (NHLBI) calls for developing and sustaining the diversity of a scientific workforce capable of
accomplishing this mission. Increasing the size and diversity of the biomedical research workforce in the field
of obesity health disparities is a critical component of achieving NHLBI’s mission, and is essential to meet the
national goal of reducing the proportion of adults who are obese to 33.9% by 2020. For the past four years, our
site – Obesity Health Disparities (OHD PRIDE) - has been one of seven PRIDE sites funded to develop and
implement a comprehensive research training and mentoring program for early-career faculty members from
groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences (R25HL126145). In this renewal application, we
describe our strategy for implementing and evaluating a refined evidence-based, culturally- and
environmentally-relevant research training and mentoring program specifically targeting eligible early-career
faculty who are employed and/or trained at HBCUs. OHD PRIDE will consist of five phases: (1) an initial 10-
day intensive face-to-face summer program; (2) ongoing web-based Writing Accountability Groups (WAGs)
during the academic year; (3) a 3-day mid-year mentored meeting; (4) a culminating 4-day face-to-face
summer program; and (5) an expansion of our ongoing alumni program, designed to create a sustainable
network of intellectual and social support beyond the program’s research training experience that builds on our
existing alumni. Our proposed program will continue to provide skills training in community-based interventions
and secondary data analyses to address obesity disparities.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10077877
- **Project number:** 5R25HL126145-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MED CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Bettina M. Beech
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $210,847
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-09-15 → 2021-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10077877

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10077877, Obesity Health Disparities Research PRIDE Program (OHD PRIDE) (5R25HL126145-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10077877. Licensed CC0.

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