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.

Virgina Commonwealth University in Richmond received a two-year, $378,026 grant from the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth. The study will examine how changes in communities of bacteria, viruses, and human cells can affect women’s health and pregnancy outcomes. Jennifer Fettweis, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the VCU School of Medicine is one of the leaders of the study. Dr. Fettweis is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she double majored in mathematics and economics. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Bryn Mawr College, the highly rated liberal arts institution for women in Pennsylvania, received a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for research that will synthesize minerals in the laboratory to mimic those found on the surface of Mars. The project will enable scientists to process data collected by satellite and ground-based instruments to determine where liquid water once existed on the planet. The project is under the direction of Selby Cull-Hearth, an assistant professor of mineralogy at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Cull-Hearth is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She hold a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis.

Northeastern University in Boston received a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a large intervention project aimed at preventing HIV infection among urban African American women between the ages of 18 and 29. Women who participate in the “Love, Sex, and Choices” project receive a 12-episode video soap opera which follows four women and touches on condom use, HIV testing, and HIV prevention strategies. The project is led by Lorraine Lacroix, director of the Women’s Project at Northeastern University. She is a graduate of Boston University and holds a master of public health degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, received a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for a summer research program for women in engineering fields. Over the next three years more than 40 women will spend 10 weeks over the summer conducting research with a faculty mentor at Lafayette. They will receive a stipend and live in campus housing. Lauren Sefcik Anderson, an associate director of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Lafayette is a co-director of the program. She is a graduate of Lafayette College and holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia.