The Carolina Women’s Care Study was conceived and implemented by Drs. Kim Creek  and Lucia Pirisi-Creek with their graduate student Carolyn Banister in 2003.  Internal funding from the Office of Research and Health Sciences at USC was used to begin the CWCS and demonstrate viability to seek external funding to continue and broaden the scope of the study.  One and a half years later, in 2005, funding for the CWCS was secured for five years from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (EXPORT P20MD001770) at the National Institutes of Health.

     USC, our first study site has approximately 25% of the student body identifying as African American.  The CWCS has enrolled the same proportion of African American women into the study as are enrolled at USC.  However, to increase the number of minority participants we opened a second site at Claflin University in 2007.  Claflin University which is located 35 miles from USC is a Historically Black College and University.