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.

George Washington University in Washington, D.C., received a $300,000 grant from the Clare Boothe Luce Foundation to establish the Clare Boothe Luce Scholars Program aimed at increasing the number of undergraduate women who gain research experience in STEM fields. The program is under the direction of Rachelle S. Heller, a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Heller is a graduate of Stony Brook University in New York and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

The Kennedy School at Harvard University is launching a Women and Public Policy Program focusing on issues of gender and technology. The program is being funded by a $2 million grant from Pivotal Ventures, an initiative of Melinda Gates. The project is under the direction of Iris Bohnet, professor of public policy at Harvard. She is the author of  What Works: Gender Equality By Design (Harvard University Press 2016). A native of Switzerland, Dr. Bohnet earned a Ph.D. at the University of Zürich.

Texas Woman’s University received a grant from the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to establish a  flavor chemistry laboratory on campus. The flavor chemistry program at Texas Woman’s University is under the direction of Xiaofen Du, who joined the university earlier this year as an assistant professor. Dr. Du holds a Ph.D. in food science from Oregon State University.