A department in the College of Nursing & Health Innovation is looking for research fellows after receiving a $150,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations.

ASU’s Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens and Families, which researches disease prevention and care of children and families in at-risk populations, received the grant last month, said director Bonnie Gance-Cleveland.

The money will be used to fund scholarships for research fellows — both pre- and post-doctoral — working at the center, she said.

“We’re extremely honored to be recognized by the Hearst Foundation[s],” Cleveland said. “They have shown a commitment to health education, particularly in underserved segments of the population.”

Terry Olbrysh, the nursing college’s communications director, said the center is looking particularly for fellows from minority groups, as much of the research revolves around reaching out to patients in the Native American, African-American and Hispanic-American communities.

Researchers from those backgrounds, he said, would better understand the cultural barriers separating them from the rest of the population.

“A lot of times, there are cultural practices and beliefs that you are going to understand better if you come from the same part of the population,” Olbrysh said. “You’re [also] going to understand their preferences as patients.”

One potential beneficiary of the new funding and fellows is assistant professor Kimberly Arcoleo.

Arcoleo conducts research for the center on a variety of topics, including asthma in young Latino children.

Her research in the past few months has found the clumping of many different groups under the label “Latino” for research purposes to be faulty, she said.

For example, Puerto Rican children are at a much higher risk to be asthmatic than Mexican children, she said.

“The severity of the disease in [Puerto Rican] kids would’ve been understated while the severity of it in Mexican children was overrated,” Arcoleo said.

She said the grant funding and researchers could go a long way in her upcoming research, which will look at environmental factors that contribute to the discrepancy in asthma cases between different ethnic groups.

Arcoleo said she is looking to enroll about 600 mothers and children from Phoenix, Scottsdale and the Bronx, N.Y.

“We’re looking more now into the family and cultural factors that cause these health disparities in certain segments of the population,” Arcoleo said.

Other areas the center is researching include postpartum depression, obesity and outreach to at-risk segments of the population. Olbrysh said the center is going to need a dedicated, diverse group of fellows to adequately study those topics.

“We’re looking for a focus, an emphasis and a dedication to children’s health,” Olbrysh said. “[We want] people dedicated to research to improve the quality of care for children and families.”

Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.