Legacy Health Endowment announced another initiative aimed at improving healthcare for local residents, this time with grant to recruit and retain medical professionals to the Valley.

LHE gave a $400,000 conditional grant to support the creation of the Tony Weber Healthcare Scholars Program at Golden Valley Health Centers (GVHC). The program is designed to empower GVHC in providing its employees and future healthcare professionals with enhanced educational opportunities, ensuring continued growth and advancement within Golden Valley's exceptional healthcare services.

GVHC will use the grant program as an effort to recruit and retain much-needed medical assistants, nursing staff, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and doctors primarily to serve patents who reside in the 19 zip code-area that Legacy Health serves. For years, the area has faced an increasingly critical shortage of generalist medical professionals, including nurses and the other medical professionals. The program will help alleviate this shortage by providing tuition relief to current and future GVHC medical professionals who pursue medical educational courses or programs while remaining employed at GVHC.

The program will serve as an incentive for nurses and other medical professionals to continue working at GVHC and for new nurse recruits to join GVHC, at the same time as it will help to enhance the medical skills and capabilities that GVHC’s nurses bring to residents of the area.

"We are thrilled to support Golden Valley Health Centers in establishing the Tony Weber Medical Scholars Program. This grant represents our recognition of Tony Weber's outstanding leadership and dedication to serving the underserved and our commitment to fostering growth and development within the healthcare workforce. We believe this program will serve as a shining model for Federally Qualified Health Centers across California and the nation," said President and CEO of Legacy Health Endowment Jeffrey Lewis.

Working closely with Golden Valley Health Centers, Legacy Health Endowment will collaboratively develop assessment criteria to evaluate the impact of the initial grant over the next four years, laying the foundation for a sustainable and impactful program that will endure for generations to come.

“I am humbled and honored. I know the program will make a difference, not only in the lives of those that receive the help but to the patients that are served by the award recipients,” said Golden Valley Health Centers President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Weber. “As I begin to think about the winding down of my career and look back on all that I have been able to be a part of, this is something I will feel proud of for years to come. To have a scholarship award named in my honor is incredibly special.”