NC-HCAP News

Dr. Thomas Ricketts, deputy director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill accepts the NC-HCAP Legacy Award from Dr. Carolyn M. Mayo, executive director of NC-HCAP, on behalf of the late Cecil G. Sheps.

NC-HCAP Honors Cecil G. Sheps With Legacy Award

10.26.06

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina Health Careers Access Program (NC-HCAP) posthumously honored founder Cecil G. Sheps, M.D., M.P.H, with the NC-HCAP Legacy Award.

Dr. Carolyn M. Mayo, NC-HCAP executive director, presented the award at the organization’s 35th anniversary celebration on October 26. It was accepted by Dr. Thomas Ricketts, deputy director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on behalf of the Sheps family.

The Legacy Award was established to recognize Sheps’ vision and support for the founding of NC-HCAP. “Dr. Sheps’ action symbolized his awareness and commitment to addressing the underrepresentation of minority and disadvantaged students in graduate and health professions programs,” states Patrena B. Majette, associate director for NC-HCAP. “It was befitting to celebrate his legacy and honor his life’s work as we commemorate this important milestone in our organization’s history.”

For over forty years, Sheps taught, compiled research, held positions in university administration and served in the field as an organizer and administrator of health services. In 1968, he became the founding director of the Health Services Research Center at UNC; shortly thereafter, he became vice chancellor for health affairs. In 1971, he had the vision to establish the North Carolina Health Manpower Development Program in an effort to help provide a solution to the severe shortage of underrepresented minority health professionals, specifically in underserved rural and inner-city North Carolina communities.

In 1973, the organization expanded to include three regional health careers centers at North Carolina Central University, Elizabeth City State University and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. It was renamed the North Carolina Health Careers Access Program in 1990.

“Dr. Sheps was a true visionary and a master of the prophetic. Just think, in 1971 he predicted the need to create a program designed to diversify the health care workforce and began this now 35-year-old initiative—a program that is helping to address health care and health workforce diversity issues; a program that challenges professional colleagues to engage in health disparities research and interventions; a program that is a constant voice in advocating the need for members of the health sciences community to train all health professionals to be culturally competent or, at least express cultural humility,” shares Mayo.

“[Sheps’] legacy continues to live on in our staff, the many students in the health sciences pipeline and the practicing health professionals who have benefited from this program.”

For more information about the North Carolina Health Careers Access Program, contact NC-HCAP at (919) 966-2264 or visit the NC-HCAP Web site at http://nchcap.unc.edu.