Morehouse School of Medicine News August 7, 2018 MSM Awards $100,000 to Fund Healthy Community Initiatives and Train U.S. Elected Officials Atlanta Medical School awards $100,000 to 10 municipalities across eight states Ten municipalities across eight states joined the 2018 Cohort of the Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI) selected as $10,000 grant recipients from Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). The initiative engages mayors, county and elected officials, and community leaders, to enhance their health leadership skills, influence health policies, and implement health projects to address health inequities. Civic leaders from across the nation have kicked off their projects with action planning in partnership with their elected officials, as MSM provides pilot project technical assistance. The projects will be implemented through February 2019. "We are excited and honored to be one of the Morehouse School of Medicine grant recipients. To expand our efforts to combat our food access challenges, we will use the grant to provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables and provide cooking demonstration and meal kits at various convenience stores throughout our great city," says Deana Holiday Ingraham, Mayor of the City of East Point, GA. These civic leader convenings are made possible by a grant to Community Voices: Health Care for the Underserved, a Division of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. "Partnering with municipalities to directly impact the health of their citizenry is an essential aspect of how we are leading the creation and advancement of health equity," says Starla Hairston Blanks, MBA, MPH Director of the Community Voices Division of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Principal Investigator of the Healthy Communities Initiative Leadership Program. The mayors and elected officials trained by MSM include: * Mayor Eddie Cole (Eatonville, FL) * Commissioner Rodney Ellis (Houston, TX) * Mayor Jimmie Gardner (Prichard, AL) * Honorable Helen Holton and Councilman Bernard Young (Baltimore, MD) * Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham (East Point, GA) * Mayor Donnis Leeth (Colony, AL) * Mayor Barbara Mallett (East Spencer, NC) * Commissioner Oz Nesbitt (Conyers, GA) * Commissioner Chris Rodgers and Councilman Ben Gray (Omaha, NE) * Councilwoman Deborah Delgado (Hattiesburg, MS) SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org/ sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org%3cmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org>> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. The 8th HBCU Library Alliance Membership Meeting is scheduled at the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library (GA) on Sunday through Tuesday, October 7-9. Click here<http://www.hbculibraries.org/meeting-2018-info.html> for registration and session details. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/