NIH funding cuts hit major artery in 25-year fight against heart disease
By Alice Thomas-Tisdale
JA Publisher Emerita
Tougaloo College, one of Mississippi’s premier HBCUs, is among the latest institutions of higher education to feel the wrath of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). Now in jeopardy is its Jackson Heart Study Undergraduate Training and Education Center (JHSUTEC), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. Since January, NIH has terminated over 1,300 employees and cancelled more than $2 billion in federal research grants.
Earlier this week, Dr. Wendy Brown White, who oversees the Tougaloo College JHS cohort, along with Jackson State University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, which find themselves in the same predicament, took to Facebook to address her disdain, which is reprinted here with her permission.
“Today I had to inform 36 students that they will not have their scholarships when they return to Tougaloo College in the fall. They have not done anything wrong. In fact, most of them have done everything right,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, the Jackson Heart Study Undergraduate Training and Education Center (JHSUTEC) was one of the casualties of the funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“It didn’t matter that this is our 25th year. It doesn’t matter that we’ve had over 315 students selected and 215 to graduate from the program and attend graduate and professional schools around the US. It doesn’t matter that our graduates are making major contributions to their fields in education, law, medicine, public health and biomedical research. This was an investment and money well spent!”
According to Dr. White, JHSUTEC’s annual operating budget is $1.3M, which includes the salaries of five employees, overhead, and student travel to conferences, in addition to scholarships.
The accomplishments of JHSUTEC are quite impressive: 56 graduates have gone to medical/dental school, 118 to graduate and other professional schools, and 41 have joined the workforce. Nine former JHS scholars have been chief residents, two are cardiologists, and one is a cardiothoracic surgeon. Forty alumni JHS scholars have earned MPH degrees and 15 have nursing degrees. Thirty-three of the former scholars work in education/teaching related fields.
The primary objective of the JHS is to investigate the causes of heart disease in African Americans and learn how to best prevent this group of diseases in the future.
Initiated in 1998 with the first trials in 2000 of some 5300 participants living in the Jackson metropolitan area of Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties, the JHS has kept a close watch on them, even expanding its efforts through 2024 looking at the links between heart health and brain health.
April P. Carson, PhD, MPSH, who serves as director of the JHS, which remains the largest and longest running study of cardiovascular disease in African Americans, could not be reached for comment.
Fortunately, the JHSUTEC’s funding won’t end until August which saves this summer’s Science, Language Arts, and Mathematics (SLAM) Program for high school students slated for June 2-27, 2025. All students who complete SLAM will receive a stipend. Tougaloo College JHS students who serve as SLAM tutors will also receive compensation.
Since 1999, 1376 high school students have participated in SLAM workshops which has resulted in 1500 student encounters. Of the 1376 students who attended the SLAM program between 1999 and 2024, 210 (15%) attended SLAM for three consecutive workshops (SLAM I, II, and III). A total of 34 SLAM students have enrolled in Tougaloo College and participated in the JHS Scholar Program.
