New Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

The Birmingham Area Consortium for Higher Education received a three-year, $499,551 grant from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Violence Against Women for programs to provide for the safety of women on member campuses. The consortium includes Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, Miles College, University of Montevallo, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The grant will fund a mandatory training programs for students, disciplinary boards, and campus safety personnel.

The San Francisco-based Asia Foundation has pledged $1 million over five years to produce scholarships for women in Afghanistan. Under the program, undergraduate college scholarships for 78 women will be provided. An additional 10 scholarships will be made available to women faculty members who want to pursue graduate degrees.

Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to fund programs aiming to reduce sexual violence on campus. The money will be used for student education and awareness programs and for training for university law enforcement officers and counselors.

The School of Information at the University of Texas received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for programs to increase the number of women in the field of information technology. Lecia Barker, research associate professor at the university is co-principal investigator of the grant program. Her focus is on creating a strong knowledge base of leading-edge research and practices for recruiting, retaining, and raising awareness among girls and young women about careers in information technology.

Dr. Barker is a graduate of the University of Iowa. She holds an MBA from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Colorado.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine received a $1 million gift to establish the Dorothy Ann McKee Endowed Fund for Ovarian Cancer Research, Prevention, and Treatment. McKee died in 2005 at the age of 57 after a nine-year battle with ovarian cancer. The gift was given to the medical school by McKee’s sister, Cheryl.

The University of New Hampshire received a $3.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation for programs to address the gender imbalance in STEM fields. The grant money will be used to recruit and retain women faculty in STEM disciplines, professional development programs for women faculty in these fields, and to develop workplace practices and procedures to support working women.