The Connecticut Health Foundation recently selected 19 health leaders to participate in its ninth Health Leadership Fellows class, including Karen Hatcher Sneed, president of Pequot Health Care at Mashantucket.

This 10-month program is focused on the development, practice and application of leadership skills to the complex issue of health equity for people of color in Connecticut.

“I have so learned so much in the first three months of this fellowship, but one thing that truly resonates with me is that ‘optimum’ health care for all of Connecticut’s residents is complex and multi-layered,” Hatcher Sneed, a Groton resident, said in a news release from the foundation.

The program continues through June. Applications for the 2015 class will be accepted in January. For information, visit: http://www.cthealth.org/fellows-program/.

The health foundation, established in 1999, is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy. It supports grant-making, public health policy research, technical assistance and other activities that seek to improve the health of state residents. Over the past 12 years, it has awarded grants totaling almost $51 million in 45 communities.