Partners and Funders

The PHA is one of seven projects originally funded through the BMCC President’s Fund For Excellence and Innovation, established in December 2020 through a generous donation to BMCC from philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott. Since its inception, the PHA has received generous donations from donors committed to public health education.

MacKenzie Scott Foundation

BMCC President’s Fund for Excellence and Innovation,

Dietderich Family Fund,

and the CUNY Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI)

This website and the 2022-2023 PHA scholarships were funded by CUNY's Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative. In the summer of 2020, CUNY received a historic gift of $10 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to drive change across all 25 colleges and schools and to develop and expand a range of initiatives, including efforts to advance social and racial justice. A central element of these efforts is the $3 million Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI), which seeks to reimagine and further develop University programs in Black, Race and Ethnic Studies CUNY-wide. Nine RFP areas were established to seed promising work to advance BRESI’s mission and 500 proposals were submitted across CUNY. The PHA was one of 7 awards chosen to focus on Creating BRES-focused Student Internships.

Students meeting the Public Health Academy’s minimum admissions and academic requirements and who complete their two-year associate's degree at BMCC will be granted automatic admission as third year students into CUNY-Hunter College's Public Health program.