On Jan. 15, the anniversary of the late Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, one local organization announced its most recent effort to promote diversity and inclusion, ideals to which King dedicated much of his life.

The Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development, 625 Community Way, Lancaster, has established a scholarship that will benefit graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. Master's-level students who have excelled in the field of speech-language pathology at Penn State University will be supported by the scholarship, and recipients will be offered externships at Schreiber, an option that the organization expects to help it recruit and hire more minority candidates for therapy positions.

Schreiber president James DeBord has led the creation of several initiatives committed to reducing disparities in care and to fostering an organization that better reflects the diverse populations it serves. These include connecting with national associations representing professionals of color to expand its hiring pool, conducting outreach in local school districts to affirm the professional aspirations of young people, strengthening clinical affiliations with historically black colleges and universities, and drawing on job-training programs that are equipped to attract people of color into every department and to its management team.

"Throughout our history, Schreiber has always tried to provide services to some of the most vulnerable children in our community," DeBord said. "Our mantra is we will serve every family who needs us, and we want every child we see to reach their fullest potential. But in the past - and even still today - we have not achieved the diversity in our field that would best benefit our clients. By endowing this graduate scholarship at Penn State, we are taking a long-overdue step to advance equitable access to training in outpatient pediatric therapy services, with the long-term goal of creating a pool of speech-language pathology experts that reflect the communities they serve."

Penn State was selected as the educational partner because a large proportion of Schreiber's practitioners holds degrees from Penn State's program.

"The college's speech-language pathology program continues to pioneer interventions that are having a transformative effect on augmenting communication," said Craig J. Newschaffer, Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz Dean of Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. "The Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development Educational Equity Graduate Scholarship represents a major expansion in our capacity to secure talented applicants from across the full spectrum of candidates. We are deeply grateful to Schreiber for its generosity and leadership in making all these advances possible."

Schreiber has pledged $275,000 for the scholarship, which will be raised in addition to the funds needed for the center's daily operations. The gift will be matched by Penn State's Educational Equity Matching Program for a total endowment of $550,000. Readers who would like to contribute to the scholarship may visit http://www.schreiberpediatric.org.