In October 2002 investigators at the University of Pennsylvania joined forces with Cheyney University, a historically black institution that is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, to create the Penn- Cheyney EXPORT Center for Inner City Health. EXPORT stands for Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training.

Using obesity as its central theme, the overall goal of the EXPORT center is to increase the awareness of obesity-related health issues for African Americans and Latinos both in community organizations and among individuals: as well as to develop novel policies and programs to help reduce the impact of this problem. The EXPORT center is one of 15 centers in the United States and is funded by the NIH National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The Center, which is based in the Penn School of Medicine, is led by Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika (Professor of Epidemiology, Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Director of Penn's Graduate Program in Public Health Studies, and Principal Investigator on this project), Dr. Jerry Johnson (Professor of Medicine; Chief, Division of Geriatric Medicine;) and Dr. Kenoye Eke (Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania).

Dr. Kumanyika is a National Authority on issues related to obesity, and her work focuses on the myriad of issues that contribute to obesity in African-American and Latino families.