Claremont Graduate University has announced a $14 million gift from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to establish a health research center serving vulnerable populations in the Inland Empire and California's Indian Country.

The gift will fund the purchase and conversion of the university's bookstore building  into the Yuhaaviatam Center for Health Studies as a multidisciplinary hub for scholars conducting research on new, proactive and behavioral approaches to health, well-being, and disease prevention. With the School of Community & Global Health as its anchor tenant, the center will recruit outside partners and researchers involved with outreach programs focused on integrative health and research aimed at improving health care for vulnerable populations of the Los Angeles basin, home to the largest urban population of Native Americans. 

The 23,000 square-foot facility also will house the university's Tribal Administration Program — which was created in 2006 with support from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to provide training in areas of management related to tribal governance and administration — and a planned tribal community governance and jurisdiction center focused on health, well-being, and other issues.

"In our role as stewards of our ancestral lands, we support our neighboring communities, in addition to our [t]ribe," said San Manuel tribal chair Ken Ramirez. "For generations, low-income communities and underserved populations have needed quality health care. Our gift is an investment in future healthier communities and one we are happy to make."

(Photo credit: Claremont Graduate University)