The University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health has replaced its Center for Minority Health with a Center for Health Equity, which will focus on reducing health disparities in underserved communities. The school says the new center is an outgrowth of the Center for Minority Health, which concentrated on community-based health interventions. The new center will focus on research and education, particularly increasing the number of health professionals who can help eliminate disparities. It will be led by Dr. Angela Ford, the former executive director of the Center for Minority Health, and Dr. Michael Zigmond, a professor of neurology, psychiatry and behavioral and community health sciences at the university. Some of the disparities the center aims to reduce include the infant mortality rate for African- American babies and the death rate for African-Americans from cardiovascular and respiratory problems, Zigmond told a Pittsburgh public radio station.

- Compiled by Crystal D. Davis