Frazier-Bowers Receives NC AHEC Campus Innovation Grant
The North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) selected a proposal from Sylvia Frazier-Bowers, DDS, PhD, to receive a Campus Innovation Grant. Her proposal, “Dental and Oral Health Community Scholars Program,” will receive funding to support administrative assistants and guest speakers at interactive forums.
The goal of the Campus Innovation Grant Fund is to help drive innovation within the UNC-Chapel Hill health professional schools. This year, NC AHEC sought proposals that highlighted four themes: 1) enhancing diversity, 2) expanding opiate education, 3) getting learners ready for Medicaid reform, and 4) developing clinical sites in Tier 1 and 2 counties. NC AHEC received 27 applications requesting $1.1 million, but the organization only had $550,000 to award.
NC AHEC prioritized proposals based on several factors including, how the proposal related to this year’s themes; innovativeness; the importance of the clinical or education problem addressed; collaboration with other schools/disciplines; plans for evaluation; dissemination and sustainability; and relevance to AHEC’s mission.
Frazier-Bowers’ proposal “Dental and Oral Health Community Scholars Program” (DOCS) addresses the challenge of providing healthcare in the ever-evolving political and social climate. Her proposal focuses on the intersection of cultural factors and social inequity in the delivery of health, especially dentistry.
“The Dental and Oral Health Scholars project will pilot a School of Dentistry professional learning community and explore an infrastructure that integrates the discussion of culture and health among a diverse group of students and faculty,” said Frazier-Bowers.
“The outcome of this project will undoubtedly provide a litmus of the participating faculty and student perceptions on cultural civility. More importantly, the outcomes will help to inform our administrators on the School of Dentistry environment and the future curricular needs the dental student and continuing professional development levels.”
Students and faculty will be invited to the semester long course, which will culminate in an open session for the entire dental school community. Those who are interested should stay tuned for more details.
Dr. Lewis Lampiris, DDS, MPH is a key collaborator on this project. Other collaborators include faculty from UNC-CH across the fields of anthropology, history, politics, English, critical race theory, and more.
