About the yNPA Summer internship

​The National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA) was established to mobilize a nationwide, comprehensive, community-driven, and sustained approach to combating health disparities and to move the nation toward achieving health equity.  Strengthening and broadening leadership for addressing health disparities at all levels is a key goal of the NPA.
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The RHEC II (Region II Regional Health Equity Council) aims to increase the effectiveness of programs that target the elimination of health disparities through the coordination of partners, leaders, and stakeholders committed to action within New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Currently, Gwendolyn T. Powell, executive director of Work-Able, Inc., serves as Co-Chair of RHEC II.
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The National Stakeholder Strategy (NSS), which is the NPA’s overarching roadmap for eliminating disparities, has identified youth as a target audience for media messages and a key demographic for leadership development.  Thus, in 2013 the NPA launched its youth initiative, the yNPA, to educate a future generation of leaders and practitioners on health disparities; the role of social determinants of health in driving and perpetuating health disparities; and solutions for addressing health disparities, while engaging youth as partners in health equity work.

​Thus, in addition to partnering with Work-Able, Inc. to conduct the (pilot) 2013 Summer Health Institute, RHEC II, sort to engage an undergraduate or graduate student for a 10 week Summer Internship through the yNPA initiative, in order to conduct a regional Environmental Scan; and identify gaps in health disparities and health equity data for the region, in particular for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

​Alex Diaz Ramos, a second year medical student at the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, was chosen.  Through the sponsorship of NPA (Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health), Alex worked at the University of the Virgin Islands under the leadership of Dr. Gloria Callwood, director of the Caribbean Exploratory NIMHD Research Center (with assistance from Dr. Noreen Michael, director of research).  The results of this experience will also be presented to the 30^th Legislature.