Gilead Sciences, Inc. has announced that the Gilead Foundation has awarded 13 grants totaling $20 million to address health disparities in the Black community by advancing education equity.

Awarded through the foundation’s Creating Possible Fund, the grants will support creative and high-impact strategies with a focus on building a pipeline of Black health leaders. According to Gilead, studies suggest a link between educational attainment and health indicators, including access to health services, life expectancy, and death from disease. Supported projects will increase social connections for underserved students, create systems of support, and improve the school and learning environment. Inaugural recipients include Brown University (Annenberg Institute for School Reform) in Providence, Rhode Island; KQED in San Francisco, California; the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation in California; Pulse of Perseverance in Chicago, Illinois; the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama; Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans; and YELLOW in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

“Through the work of the Gilead Foundation, 13 organizations have been selected as inaugural Creating Possible Fund grantees, who are national leaders, thinkers, and changemakers in education, health and racial equity, adolescent mental health, and social justice,” said Korab Zuka, president of the Gilead Foundation and vice president for public affairs at Gilead Sciences. “We know that inequities in health stem from larger structural inequities that are deeply embedded in our society, laws, economy, and particularly our educational systems. With assistance from leaders in education and health, we believe we’ve chosen a group of innovators in health equity who will make a meaningful impact on society.”

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