The University of Arizona National Center of Excellence in Women's Health (WCOE) at University Physicians Hospital has been awarded a $2.1 million, five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC’s REACH U.S. program awarded 40 new grants this year.  The REACH  U.S. Action Community grant award is a national acknowledgement\recognition of the work the WCOE and its’ partners have accomplished in Pima County, as it was a highly competitive process. Of the 40 new REACH awards, 18 are designated as Centers of Excellence in the Elimination of Health Disparities (CEED) and 22 are Action Communities (AC). The goal of the CDC’s REACH U.S. program is to reduce health disparities nationwide.

Dr. Francisco Garcia, director of the UA National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, serves as the principle investigator for this grant.  The WCOE will coordinate the county-wide effort employing community driven/designed interventions to reduce cervical cancer disparities impacting the health of Mexican-American women living near the US/Mexico border and will provide prevention training.

The WCOE will work with a community based partnership representing a collaborative effort between the WCOE, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, community residents, Pima County Health Department, El Rio Community Health Center, Sunnyside Unified School District, and other community based organizations.  

The partnership will develop prevention programs to be implemented over the
next four years including the following: a community health worker train-the-trainer program that will train 20 lay community health workers every year to serve as chief educational and outreach agents for cervical cancer; a bilingual parent-to-parent peer educational program for decisions about HPV vaccinations for middle school aged girls, and an organized patient navigator program that follows the diagnosis of abnormal
screenings; and technical assistance to health care entities regarding the incorporation of new screening technologies and vaccination.

The REACH staff is housed on the third floor of UPH Hospital. For more information, contact Martha Monroy or Debbie Rodriguez at (520) 874-4933.

Back to Awards and Recognition