Funding the Future

By Michelle Goff

The University of Pikeville-Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine has received a five-year, $3.25 million Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) grant from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). KYCOM was one of only 86 grantees across the nation to receive the highly-competitive grant and only one of three Kentucky universities to receive funding. The scholarships will provide for at least half the cost of tuition for approximately 25 KYCOM students per year.

“I am so very pleased that for the second time, KYCOM has been awarded funding for the HRSA SDS grant,” said KYCOM Dean Dana Shaffer, D.O., FACOFP dist., FAOGME. “This grant allows KYCOM to help students fund their osteopathic medical education without totally depending on loans that must be repaid to the lender. By reducing repayable loans, students are more free to choose a medical specialty without worrying about going into a higher paying specialty in order to repay educational loans and accrued interest for the next several decades.”

Instructor of Medicine Candi Griffey, D.O., KYCOM ’13, will serve as the principal investigator for the grant, which aims to increase the number of graduates practicing in primary care, retention of full-time students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and number of graduates working in medically underserved areas.

“As a native of Central Appalachia and a graduate of KYCOM, I have an acute understanding of the challenges faced by underserved students and medically underserved areas,” Griffey said. “This grant will not only help the individual scholarship recipients, but also the populations who will benefit from the health care they receive from these future physicians.”

In order for an educational institution to receive funding, it must be carrying out a program to recruit and retain students from disadvantaged backgrounds and must demonstrate that the program has achieved success based on the percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are enrolled full-time and have graduated from the school. At least 20 percent of the school’s full-time enrolled students and graduates must be from a disadvantaged background.

As part of KYCOM’s commitment to student success, Director of Educational Support Janie Castle and Coordinator of Academic Progress Cathy Derry track the performance of disadvantaged and other at-risk students, monitor their academic status and benchmarks, and offer advice on how to improve curriculum achievement and meet career goals. KYCOM’s retention plan includes providing individual consulting with disadvantaged and academically at-risk students to plan strategies aimed at improving course achievement and board examination performance.

In addition to Shaffer and Griffey, Castle and Derry as well as UPIKE Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness and Athletics Compliance Administrator Margaret Sidle, Ph.D., collaborated with grant writers, Michelle Goff and Denise Thomas, on the grant proposal.

“It is gratifying on both a personal and professional level to know that the work we do will directly benefit, in such a significant way, students with great need who will become servant leaders in the medical field and will allow them to achieve their goals, knowing that but for the financial assistance they may have been prevented from doing so,” stated Thomas.

Grants office staff, located within the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations, are experienced in writing grant proposals for a wide variety of projects and programs that are in pursuit of funding from public and private agencies for the benefit of the UPIKE community.

The HRSA grant meets UPIKE’s mission of creating opportunities for Appalachia and KYCOM’s mission to provide students with an osteopathic medical education that emphasizes primary care, encourages research, promotes lifelong scholarly activity and produces graduates who are committed to serving the health care needs of communities in rural Kentucky and Appalachia.

This program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $3,250,000 with zero percent financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Becker decided on KYCOM after completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky, majoring in biology and Spanish. She chose KYCOM for the strong anatomy program and because she wanted to pursue osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) with a more integrated, holistic approach to medicine.

Becker enrolled in medical school at KYCOM with other personal financial obligations on top of education expenses. Thankfully the Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) helped relieve the financial burden.

“In receiving the scholarship, I felt a huge sense of relief because it allowed me to focus on my studies rather than being stressed out about the financial aspects,” said Becker. “I’m glad the university has made this scholarship available and sees what a difference it makes, allowing med students to focus less on finances and more on learning.”

After a serious look at family medicine, Becker was drawn more to women’s health services. She is now working as an OB/GYN resident at Central Michigan University.

Erlandson came to KYCOM from Wisconsin because of the emphasis the program places on rural health care for underserved populations using OMT. A physician he shadowed early in his journey to becoming a doctor trained in Pikeville and encouraged him to learn more about the program.

Erlandson received the SDS three of the four years he attended KYCOM as a non-traditional student with a family and financial commitments.

“I started medical school married with two children and we fully expected financial hardship during the student and training years. The scholarship alleviated some of the stress associated with loan burden and made the decision to practice in primary care a more feasible choice,” said Erlandson.

He thanks the former senior associate dean for osteopathic medical education, William T. Betz, D.O., for welcoming him into the class of 2019. He is now a second-year resident at Gunderson Health System in La Crosse, Wis., practicing family medicine with an emphasis on rural care.

Hayes grew up in Knott County, Ky., and completed her undergraduate studies at UPIKE while in the Osteopathic Medical Scholars Program, before being accepted into KYCOM.

She was a recipient of the SDS three of the four years she attended medical school.

“Receiving the scholarship has chipped away a large portion of the financial burden hanging over my head to repay. It has allowed me to concentrate less on the financial aspect of medicine and more on developing a patient-centered practice,” Hayes explained. “I am extremely grateful to have been selected for this scholarship and hope to be a representation of the type of physician for which it was designed.”

Hayes is currently in her second year of residency in internal medicine at the University of KentuckyBowling Green Medical Center. She is working toward a fellowship in pulmonology and critical care after residency concludes. She plans to reside in the Appalachian region to practice medicine.

“I certainly plan to pay it forward as a seasoned attending, both with support to learners and with care for my patients, the people of our region, in their sickest, darkest times,” said Hayes.

Whitley is a Grayson, Ky., native who completed her undergraduate education at Georgetown College in Kentucky, majoring in chemistry and minoring in biology. She chose to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor at KYCOM.

Born in Eastern Kentucky, Whitley wanted to pursue her medical training at KYCOM and Pikeville felt like home to her. Receiving the SDS made realizing her dream a little easier.

“This scholarship helped to decrease financial barriers and stress during medical school that allowed me to really focus on learning the medicine,” Whitley said.

Whitley completed her residency training in June of this year at Duke/Southern Regional AHEC in Fayetteville and now practices family medicine in Sunset Beach, N.C.