File photo.

Fresno State has announced that the California Department of Health Care Access and Information has selected the university as one of 20 organizations to receive funding to support future health care professionals.

The $2.9 million awarded comes from $40.8 million in grant money from the department, and will be distributed to the Health Professionals Pathway Program over the course of five years.

Other universities receiving award money include CSU Dominguez Hills ($3.3 million) San Diego State University ($2.5 million) and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt’s Sponsored Programs Foundation ($498,000).

Health care professionals often practice medicine in the communities where they graduate or were raised, and director of Health Careers Opportunity Program at Fresno State Lilia DeLaCerda, a principal investigator on the project, believes this program “is our best available strategy to address health care shortages in the Central Valley.”

“These efforts are helping to build up the healthcare workforce needed in our State and even more so in the Central Valley,” wrote Assemblyman Dr. Joaquin Arambula in a tweet last week.

Fresno State’s Health Professionals Pathway Program will work to support underrepresented and/or disadvantaged students from the San Joaquin Valley who aspire to enter the field.

“These residents are among the most medically underserved in the state and…some of the poorest and most economically disadvantaged in the entire nation,” DeLaCerda said. “Our program will emphasize engaging, recruiting, and supporting underrepresented and disadvantaged students interested in pursuing health care careers.”