SEASIDE, Ca., April 24, 2018 – California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has received a $750,000 workforce development grant from Central California Alliance for Health to support CSUMB’s new Master of Science Physician Assistant (MSPA) program. The grant will be used to fund staffing and clinical equipment startup costs for the MSPA program which is scheduled to start classes January of 2019.

The $750K grant comes courtesy of Central California Alliance for Health’s (the Alliance) Medi-Cal Capacity Grant Program, whose goal is to increase primary health care providers that serve its members and community. The Alliance is a regional non-profit Medi-Cal managed health care plan serving Santa Cruz, Monterey and Merced counties.

CSUMB’s 28-month MSPA program is the first program of its type in the California State University (CSU) system and aims to help address the urgent need for more primary-care health providers on California’s Central Coast.

“Our Master of Science Physician Assistant (MSPA) Program provides a solution to the looming primary care provider shortage on the Central Coast. The excitement about the MSPA is palpable both within the 23 campus CSU system as the first of its kind, as well as throughout our networks in Central California,” said CSUMB College of Health Services and Human Sciences (CHSHS) Dean, Britt Rios-Ellis.