Atrium Health Foundation just landed more than $3.2 million from The Duke Endowment, a multi-grant boost aimed at expanding cancer care, beefing up school-based behavioral health and building local health-care career pipelines in high-need and rural communities across the Carolinas. The money is split into four grants that focus on rural oncology, a middle-school STEM program at The Pearl, and a high-school practical-nursing track in Lincoln County.
The awards, first reported today by the Triad Business Journal, total just over $3.2 million and back four projects designed to widen access to specialty care while growing local health-care talent. On the list are workforce training, early STEM exposure, an artificial-intelligence pilot for precision oncology and an expansion of school telebehavioral services.
Lincoln County health academy
The largest single grant, at $995,000, will expand the Lincoln County Health Sciences Academy, a partnership among Atrium Health Lincoln, Lincoln County Schools and Gaston College. The money will bring a Practical Nursing option to high-school juniors and seniors and add EMT and paramedic training, medical assisting and foundations-of-health-care courses. “We are building vital career pathways for students through the Health Academy program,” Dr. John Hauser, president of Gaston College, said, as reported by Atrium Health.
STEM Lab at The Pearl
An $890,000 grant will create a STEM Lab inside The Pearl innovation district, giving Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school students hands-on exposure to life sciences, health care and technology, plus access to mentors working in those fields. “STEM Lab introduces students to careers they may not have known existed,” Dr. Richard Cox Jr., director of districts education and innovation partnerships at The Pearl, said, per Atrium Health.
AI pilot for rural oncology
An $815,000 grant will support a generative artificial-intelligence pilot that helps cancer-care teams interpret complex genomic data and gives rural clinicians virtual access to expert molecular tumor boards. The goal is to expand targeted-therapy and immunotherapy options in communities where specialty oncology is harder to reach. “Support from The Duke Endowment allows us to explore how AI tools can expand access to high-quality cancer care,” Carol Farhangfar, principal investigator on the project, said in comments reported by the Triad Business Journal.
School-based telebehavioral expansion
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and The Duke Endowment jointly awarded $530,000 to grow school-based telebehavioral health for students in grades 4 through 12 in high-need and rural areas. The funding supports virtual therapy along with efforts to pinpoint barriers to students’ physical and emotional well-being. “This critical investment will help expand access to behavioral health care and equip providers to better support students,” Donnie Mitchem, project coordinator and director of outpatient therapy for Atrium Health Behavioral Health, said, as reported by the Independent Tribune.
Atrium leaders and local education officials frame the grants as a way to cut through long-standing barriers to care while growing a homegrown health-care workforce in counties that struggle to recruit and retain clinicians. Partners describe the awards as investments that could both widen access to advanced cancer treatments and give students in the Charlotte region and beyond clearer paths into medical careers.
