The Duke Endowment awards $3.2 million to strengthen Atrium Health’s cancer care, health careers and school-based behavioral health

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 19, 2026 — Atrium Health Foundation was recently awarded over $3.2 million from The Duke Endowment through four grants that will significantly advance Atrium Health’s commitments to uplifting the communities it serves. The funding will enhance cancer care in rural communities, create new pathways for students to pursue careers in health care and improve access to comprehensive behavioral health through school-based telehealth services in rural and high-need communities. 

“The Duke Endowment is an invaluable partner of Atrium Health, and together, we are investing in our communities and making a profound impact on their health,” said Mark Griffith, president of Atrium Health Foundation and Advocate Health’s vice president of philanthropy for North Carolina and Georgia. “Our organizations have a shared vision of ensuring access to care and to the pursuit of health care careers.”  

Addressing health care workforce shortage 

The largest of the grants — $995,000 — will address a health care workforce shortage in Lincoln County by expanding the Lincoln County Health Sciences Academy, a partnership between Atrium Health Lincoln, Lincoln County Schools and Gaston College. The academy is creating a robust program for high school juniors and seniors focused on Practical Nursing that will soon expand to include Emergency Medicine Technician/Paramedic Medicine, Medical Assisting and Foundations of Health Care. The program offers job placement opportunities for graduates through Atrium Health Lincoln or other surrounding facilities.  

The Health Academy is the state’s first to make a Practical Nursing program available to high school students, allowing graduates to sit for their licensing exams the summer immediately following their high school graduation. “We are building vital career pathways for students through the Health Academy program, and support from The Duke Endowment will significantly expand our efforts to design a proactive solution to meet the community’s growing health care demands,” said Dr. John Hauser, President of Gaston College.   

Investing in STEM 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school students will benefit from a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education program—STEM Lab—supported by an $890,000 grant. Embedded within The Pearl innovation district, STEM Lab introduces students to Atrium Health’s career pipeline and builds early interest in workforce development programs for older students and early-career professionals. Students benefit from hands-on learning experiences in life sciences, health care and technology. The program focuses on schools where students have limited access to mentorship, technical skill development and entrepreneurial training.  

“A core mission of STEM Lab is to introduce students to a wide range of STEM careers, including roles they may not have known existed,” said Dr. Richard Cox, Jr., director of districts education and innovation partnerships at The Pearl. “By connecting young learners with industry experts and real-world applications, STEM Lab helps students realize new possibilities for their futures and prepares them to lead in tomorrow’s health workforce.”  

Piloting AI in cancer care                                                                                                              

An $815,000 grant will enable Atrium Health to pilot a generative artificial intelligence platform that helps cancer care teams understand complex genomic information, making care more efficient and accessible for high-need communities. The platform will give rural clinicians access to expert molecular tumor boards (MBT), expanding targeted and immunotherapy treatment through precision oncology. 

“While molecular tumor boards are critical to precision oncology, access to this level of expertise remains limited in many rural communities,” said Carol Farhangfar, principal investigator of the grant and associate vice president of translational research at Atrium Health. “Support from The Duke Endowment allows us to explore how emerging AI tools can help address persistent barriers and expand access to high‑quality cancer care across North and South Carolina.” 

Expanding school-based telebehavioral health 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and The Duke Endowment have jointly awarded $530,000 to Atrium Health to expand school-based telebehavioral health services for students in grades 4–12 in high-need communities. The grant will support a multiphase effort to expand services in rural areas, identify barriers to students’ physical and emotional well-being, and strengthen long-term behavioral health capacity. The project builds on Atrium Health’s school-based virtual therapy model, which has reduced student mental health wait times. 

“This critical investment will help expand access to behavioral health care and equip providers to better support healthy behaviors and positive developmental outcomes for vulnerable students,” said Donnie Mitchem, project coordinator and director of outpatient therapy for Atrium Health Behavioral Health. “Our approach is centered on providing timely access to high‑quality care so that families are supported and students can thrive.” 

“Our founder, James B. Duke, was committed to removing barriers to health care, and improving access remains a priority for us today,” said Lin Hollowell, director of the Health Care program area at The Duke Endowment. “We share Atrium Health’s commitment to expanding access to care across the Carolinas through comprehensive, innovative and scalable systems designed to meet tomorrow’s health care needs.” 

For more than three decades, The Duke Endowment has supported visionary health care initiatives at Atrium Health and has provided more than $53 million in grants to Atrium Health Foundation.  

 

About Atrium Health Foundation 

Founded in 1959, Atrium Health Foundation is one of the largest charitable foundations in Charlotte. As the point of contact for all contributions benefiting Atrium Health in the Charlotte region, the Foundation is redefining care through transformational giving. Through its current Giving Hope Campaign, Atrium Health Foundation is supporting Atrium Health’s efforts to create the learning health system of the future by building healthy communities, outstanding education programs, preeminent research and exemplary facilities. 

 

About Advocate Health  

Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States, created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois; Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health services nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. Advocate Health is nationally recognized for its expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs more than 160,000 teammates across 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to redefining care for all, Advocate Health provides more than $6 billion in annual community benefits.   

 

###