The Arizona Center of Excellence (AZ-COE) will serve as an innovative resource and education center to recruit, train, and retain underrepresented minority (URM), with a primary focus on, Latino/Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native, students and faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine (UA COM). The AZ-COE will build upon the work of the Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence (AZ-HCOE, HRSA, 1999-2006) for which the PI of the proposed work was the co-PI. AZ-COE qualifies as an “Other” since the UA COM a) enrolls a significant (20%) number of URM students; b) has been effective in assisting URM students at the COM to complete the program of education and receive the M.D.degree; c) has been effective in recruiting URM students to enroll in and graduate from the COM, including providing scholarships and other financial assistance to URM students and encouraging URM students from all levels of the educational pipeline to pursue health professions careers; and d) has made significant recruitment efforts to increase the number of URM individuals serving in faculty or administrative positions at the COM. The UA COM has a) improved URM medical and graduate student matriculation and performance; b) established a multistep pipeline, strengthened by AZ-HOPE (HCOP, HRSA, 2011-present), of URM graduate students and medical students to contribute to the academic workforce; c) developed and advanced a cadre of American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino/Hispanic and other URM faculty; and d) cultivated community support and linkages. The AZ-COE will engage academic partners from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing, Arizona Area Health Education Center, Native American Research and Training Center, American Indian Studies Department and Mexican American Studies and Research Center and community partners from Arizona Inter- Tribal Council, tribal colleges, community colleges and a local school district to serve 566 URM students and faculty. The AZ-COE’s specific goals will meet all 7 required Legislative requirements and demonstrate: 1. Institutional commitment to Arizona, regional, and national URM populations with a focus on minority health and eliminating health disparities, with particular emphasis on American Indian/Alaska Native and Latino/Hispanic communities and their health priorities. 2. Innovative educational e-learning and virtual technologies to strengthen and expand programs that enhance the academic performance of URM students at UA COM. 3. Cultural competence of health profession educators, students, graduates, faculty of the UA COM and our other health profession schools. 4. Best practice models of URM faculty development and retention, multicultural curricula, and faculty and student research engagement and accomplishment addressing URM health. AZ-COE accomplishments will be assessed through the following overarching specific, measurable objectives: improve the pipeline to enter the COM; improve URM matriculation, retention and graduation rates by enhancing URM student academic performance; support URM faculty professional development; maximize access to health information resources and facilitate development of health information competencies including cultural competency; develop