$3 Million Grant Awarded to St. Thomas University’s Center for Pandemic, Disaster and Quarantine Research from County’s CARES Act Funds

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Miami Dade County Board of County Commissioners awarded $3,000,000 in Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) to St. Thomas University’s Center for Pandemic, Disaster and Quarantine Research (PDQ). The grant funds stem from a Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) allocation made earlier this year to the county.

St. Thomas University’s PDQ was established in April 2020 in response to the public health emergency caused by COVID-19. The Center is designed to track the impact of emerging, expanding, and extended pandemics and disasters on all socio-economic aspects of society. The PDQ is led by Oliver Gilbert, and co-chaired by STU professors Jose Rocha, Ph.D., and Todd Clark, J.D.

St. Thomas University is proud of their relationship with the Miami-Dade County community, and as such will be redistributing approximately one third of the grant back to the community in the form of grants to organizations that serve vulnerable populations negatively impacted by COVID-19. St. Thomas University’s planned distribution of the remaining two thirds of the grant funds will support the establishment of a central hub on the university’s campus for addressing COVID-related community needs in the areas of health care, law, business, and property. The center will be driven by the needs of the community as we embark on the long and multi-facetted recovery from COVID-19.

“We are part of this community, and have deep ties that go beyond location,” said David A. Armstrong, J.D., President of St. Thomas University. “While the work of the PDQ will aid our country, and indeed the world, that work begins here in Miami-Dade County, where it impacts our students, our families, and the broader community.”

About St. Thomas University

St. Thomas is a Catholic University with rich cultural and international diversity committed to the academic and professional success of its students who become ethical leaders in our global community. The only Catholic Archdiocesan-sponsored university in Florida, STU is a private, non-profit university that offers 39 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees at its 144-acre campus in Miami Gardens, Fla., and through distance learning, including one of the oldest (and highly ranked) undergraduate programs in Sports Administration in the country. STU has been ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report in Social Mobility for regional universities in the South, which means it takes students from the lowest financial strata and catapults them to much higher financial strata in only 10 years. For the last two years in a row, STU has recruited the largest incoming undergraduate classes in the university’s history.