Cedars-Sinai Gets $1 Million Scholarship Gift From Ray Charles Foundation

The program will accept one or two MD or PhD students to participate in the program each year.

Photo by Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The Ray Charles Foundation has donated $1 million to fund a new neurosurgery scholarship program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, hospital officials announced Saturday.

Scholarship recipients will receive personalized, mentored research training from Cedars-Sinai's neurosciences faculty members while conducting their own research projects, under the direction of Dr. Keith L. Black, chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery.

"This generous gift allows us to create a program, the Ray Charles Foundation Scholars Fund in Neurosurgery, that will help us invest in the future," Black said. "We hope that these scholars will continue to give back to their communities."

The program will accept one or two MD or PhD students to participate in the program each year.

Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation, says that the goal is to create a training pipeline that helps shape the careers of future leaders in the field of neuroscience.

"It is an honor, on behalf of The Ray Charles Foundation and its board of directors, to partner with Cedars-Sinai and Dr. Black in shaping the future for the next generation in science and medicine through The Ray Charles Foundation Scholars Fund in Neurosurgery," Ervin said. "The mentorship and teaching in this residency program in the name of Ray Charles are immeasurable and will set the tone for the next generation of doctors."

The legendary singer and songwriter, who died in 2004, started The Ray
Charles Foundation in 1986.

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