Mission

The mission of RAPID-Illinois is to facilitate pathways to careers in the health professions for groups that have been historically underrepresented in those spaces. Such groups may include racially and ethnically diverse individuals, those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, or from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.

Goal

The RAPID-Illinois website serves both as a repository for resources that can support exploration of health careers, and as a portal to a searchable, online inventory of health career pathway programs in Illinois.

RAPID-IL also aims to convene a Community of Practice of stakeholders who are invested in diversifying the health field by increasing the number of underrepresented students enrolled in health-related academic programs across Chicago and the State of Illinois.

University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health

The University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health (UIC-SPH) is the only fully accredited School of Public Health in the state of Illinois. For more than 50 years, the school has trained public health practitioners, researchers, academic faculty, policymakers, and activists whose work focuses on addressing health inequities and working in partnership with communities at the local, state, and global levels.

Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute

The Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute is a philanthropic organization founded over 100 years ago with a mission to investigate causes of disease and to prevent human suffering among residents of Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois.

RAPID-Illinois is housed at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health (UIC-SPH) and was established in 2021 with generous support from the Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute.