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Jun 24, 2025  |  
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Gabrielle M. Etzel


NextImg:HHS opens DEI investigation into health education scholarship in DC

The Trump administration on Friday launched an investigation into a Washington, D.C., medical organization accused of using race-based criteria for a research scholarship funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.

An HHS official told the Washington Examiner that the HHS Office of Civil Rights opened the investigation following a complaint that the organization, Academy Health, offers a health services research scholarship that excludes white applicants because they are not members of underrepresented racial or ethnic minority groups.

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This marks the sixth investigation from the HHS Office of Civil Rights since March regarding medical institutions discriminating on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin for preferential treatment in research funding or admissions. The swath of investigations follows the controversial executive order from President Donald Trump to eliminate funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs across all federal programs.

“The Office for Civil Rights will faithfully apply civil rights law using a colorblind lens to root out discriminatory criteria and promote individual excellence, grit, and hard work,” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the HHS civil rights division, said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Trump’s executive order specifically charges federal agencies with eliminating DEI programs on the basis of long-standing civil rights laws requiring equal treatment regardless of race.

The order also explicitly directs federal agencies to investigate “medical associations” and “institutions of higher education” with endowments over $1 billion.

HHS opened four separate investigations into institutions on March 7 following allegations that several medical schools and hospitals receiving HHS funds may be discriminating on the basis of race in medical education, training, and scholarship programs.

Shortly thereafter, the OCR opened a fifth investigation into “a major medical school in California to determine whether it discriminates on the basis of race, color, or national origin in its admissions.”

The announcements of the first five ORC investigations opened in March did not name the institutions under investigation.

An HHS official said that the specific scholarship from Academy Health was titled the “equity, diversity, and inclusion scholarship,” which was available to certain ethnic minority groups and purposefully excluded white applicants. The scholarship program is no longer on the Academy Health website.

A different scholarship opportunity on the health education institution’s website, the “Health Equity Scholars Program,” requires applicants to be “a member of an under represented group in the field of health services research.”

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The scholarship specifically encourages “applications from individuals who have face systemic barriers to access and opportunity in education or professional settings,” including being a first-generation college graduate, economic hardship, or other “personal or societal obstacles.”

Academy Health will have 30 days to respond to the OCR’s request for information.