HU Awarded $1.2M to Establish Support Center for Disabled Children

Dr. Bernadette Williams

Hampton, Va. –The Hampton University Department of Physical Therapy was awarded a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funding will establish a family support center for underserved families with developmentally disabled pre-school children, which is a high priority of HU’s President William R. Harvey.

The project, a five-year grant, is also designed to train numerous pre professional students in health, education and behavioral sciences. HU’s program development will include activities directly impacting health disparities within the disabled community. The grant will greatly enhance the department’s ability to boast in its mission, which includes the delivery of quality physical therapy education in a multicultural environment, with emphasis on the needs of the disadvantaged and underserved.

HU Department of Physical Therapy Chairperson Dr. Bernadette Williams, the grant’s principal investigator, said the funding will help catapult the department into a position to invest in their own talent and effect change.

“Now, we will be able to harness the considerable talents of our researchers in direct problem-solving,” she said. “We anticipate that many projects addressing numerous health disparities will be launched as a result of this important project.”

The grant represents a partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Old Dominion University, Georgetown University, Norfolk State University and other academic institutional members of the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance. The ultimate goal of HU’s strategic research partnership with the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance, under the leadership of former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis Sullivan, is to increase the number of minority health professionals and researchers nationwide, with the hope of promoting better health outcomes for America’s at-risk populations.

HU co-founded the six-year-old partnership between state universities in Virginia and Nebraska, which was formed to reduce racial health disparities by increasing the number of minority health care professionals. All five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the state are partners as well:  St Paul’s College, Norfolk State, Virginia State, Virginia Union University and HU. University of Virginia, Eastern Virginia Medical Schools Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University are also partners in the alliance.

The diversity of institutions working on the project is a plus, Williams said.

“I am absolutely delighted to receive this award,” she said, “and excited about this inter-disciplinary and multi-institutional research project.”

HU was the first university to have a Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) program in Virginia, and is one of only eight Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCUs) with a physical therapy program. The Department of Physical Therapy has approval to confer the DPT degree by the State Council in Higher Education for the State of Virginia (SCHEV). It is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

For more information about the HU Department of Physical Therapy call 757.727.5260 or visit science.hamptonu.edu/pt.