The Center of Excellence (formerly Project EXPORT) is an ongoing national program authorized by the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000. It supports other Department of Health and Human Services initiatives to identify, address, and ultimately eliminate health disparities.

The University of South Alabama Center for Healthy Communities (USA CHC) Center for Excellence’s EXPORT Center is focused on

eliminating health disparities in the Gulf Coast region. A multidisciplinary, community based participatory approach has been adopted to achieve this goal. This proposal expands the Center's efforts and has an overall objective to improve health and healthy behaviors of African Americans and economically deprived persons in the Gulf Coast Region through novel, broad-based research initiatives focusing on health disparities.

The projects proposed by the USA CHC will expand the center's efforts to eliminate health disparities. New and old partnerships will be nurtured to bring more resources to bear upon the center's mission and create a community collaborative for enhancing the health of groups at high risk for health disparities.