HRSA has released grants totaling more than $16 million to support Centers of Excellence (COE) programs at 11 universities throughout the country and in Puerto Rico . COE programs seek to improve the performance of health professions training programs that serve minority and ethnic groups who are underrepresented in the health professions.
 
Universities and medical schools use COE funds to boost the academic performance of under-represented minority students, encourage graduates to provide health care to medically underserved people, and raise the recruitment and retention rates of minority faculty.
 
First-year grantees are Creighton University , University of Puerto Rico , University of Tennessee , and the University of Texas .  And the Meharry School of Medicine in Nashville received two separate awards: one for the medical school and another for its School of Dentistry .   A table of 2003 grantees follows:
 

Centers for Excellence Grants
Institution	City	State	Award
Tuskegee University	Tuskegee	Ala.	$2,547,562
University of Arizona	Tucson	Ariz.	$500,000
Howard University	Washington	D.C.	$553,077
Xavier University of Louisiana	New Orleans	La.	$2,280,000
Creighton University	Omaha	Neb.	$555,907
Ohio University	Athens	Ohio	$484,364
University of Puerto Rico	San Juan	P.R.	$727,808
University of Tennessee	Memphis	Tenn.	$688,084
Meharry Medical College	Nashville	Tenn.	$5,280,000
Meharry Medical College ( Dental School )	Nashville	Tenn.	$1,892,438
University of Texas	Austin	Texas	$555,553
		Total:	$16,064,793