ECHO supports training opportunities for qualified students at all levels of their education in order to increase the future professional capacity of each student. When variables like racism, poverty, and problematic community environments overlap and deepen, a trend toward greater threats is seen. The most powerful factors shaping both health and health disparities are social and economic determinants, or the community conditions for health. ECHO is focused on addressing the extreme shortage of clinical investigators and researchers from minority populations. ECHO believes by increasing the number of under-represented minority faculty, investigators and students engaged in a variety of research disciplines broadens the opportunities for under-represented minority faculty and students to develop in these disciplines early in their careers, cementing their presence and closing the gap in research. Specifically, ECHO provides funding support, publicity and student placement.

• Shaw University - University of North Carolina Undergraduate Program in Prostate Cancer Research and Training (SUUPPRT)
• The Summer Pre-Graduate Research Experience (SPGRE) Program
• Moore Undergraduate Research Experience(MURAP)
• UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP)
  Community-Based Participatory Research training
• Emerging Leaders in Public Health