SMU Professor Wins $2.5 Million Grant to Diversify Healthcare through Minority Youth Program

FACES for the Future Coalition, created in Oakland 15 years ago to provide academic enrichment and training to disadvantaged students seeking health-related careers, will now expand in California and nationally thanks to a federal grant.

Dr, Tomás Magaña, assistant professor and medical director of the Master Physician Assistant Program at Samuel Merritt University (SMU), co-founded FACES to help high school students from underserved communities transition into health fields by providing them with hospital internships, academic enrichment and psychosocial support.

More than 500 students have participated in FACES programs in California since 2000. Nearly all graduated from high school and many have gone on to post-secondary college or training with the intention of pursuing healthcare professions — including two alumna who are currently studying at SMU.

FACES was awarded $2.5 million grant from the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in September to replicate its services in communities of color across the country over the next few years with the goal of developing a more diversified health workforce. The first programs outside of California are planned for Detroit and New Mexico.

"The accomplishments of our alumni show that investments in youth are well worth the effort,” said Magaña, who is also director of FACES. “If we can boost participant’s high school graduation rates in Oakland, we can do that in Detroit. If low-income, kids of color in California can become doctors, social workers, and physician’s assistants, they can in New Mexico, too."

The FACES Summer Medical Academy, in partnership with Samuel Merritt University, offers a two-week intensive program that exposes high school students to state-of-the art training in medicine and health careers. 

Top left photo: FACES Summer Medical Academy participants, 2014
Bottom right photo: Dr, Tomás Magaña from NBC nightly news story

(Click here to visit NBC.com's story about FACES for the Future and Dr. Magaña (January 2013))