Rapid City: The Oyate Health Center’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Harlow, has created a scholarship fund that will provide five Native American High School Graduates from the Rapid City area with $1500 if they enter a healthcare field or a degree path that supports healthcare.

“I was inspired to create this fund by the people I have worked with and come to know during my time working at the Oyate Health Center and by our efforts to make it a premier healthcare facility,” said Harlow.

Dr. Harlow, an orthopedic surgeon, joined the Oyate Health Center in 2020 and serves as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Harlow’s commitment to the Oyate Health Center has helped the newly established tribally managed healthcare clinic navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and expand quality healthcare services for its patient population.

Harlow donated $115,000 of his Oyate Health Center earnings to an endowment managed by the Monument Foundation to establish the scholarship fund. Dr. Harlow says that the plan is to continue to invest so that more scholarships can be awarded to Native American students from the Rapid City area.  

Dr. Harlow received the Award of Distinction from Monument Health in “recognition of his outstanding leadership, service, and philanthropy among the Monument Health physicians and community leaders. He has received humanitarian awards from the Medical College of Wisconsin and the South Dakota State Medical Association.

The Oyate Health Center is a tribal healthcare system in Rapid City managed by the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board on behalf of the Oglala, Rosebud, and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. Founded in 1986, GPTLHB stands as a formal representative board designed to advocate for tribal health concerns and work with tribal communities to improve health status and eradicate health disparities among the region’s estimated 265,837 tribal members.

Download Application Here