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.

Two Spelman College alumnae and sisters, Erin Johnson Tolefree and Cara Johnson Hughes have made two gifts on behalf of their family business, Baldwin Richardson Foods to the women’s college in Atlanta. Over a period of 10 years, the Baldwin Richardson Annual Scholarship, established at $1.5 million, will provide a first-year student with a full tuition package for their entire undergraduate education at Spelman. The second gift, establishes at $100,000 fund that will provide first-year students with supplemental tuition. The alumnae’s “generosity expands Spelman’s ability to develop Black women who can take advantage of programs like Spelpreneur, a four-year initiative that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation. We are grateful to these alumnae leaders who recognize the necessity of investing in the education of women who will create and lead innovative businesses across a spectrum of industries,” said Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell. Tolefree and Hughes both hold bachelor’s degrees in economics from Spelman College.

A group of chemists from Vanderbilt University have been awarded a $7.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to lead an initiative to better understand how chemotherapy for breast cancer targets DNA. The research team will study the chemical biology of guanine alkylation that occurs with cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin, a treatment often referred to as AC chemotherapy regimen. According to the researchers, if cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin “act synergistically, this could lead to new drugs designed to take advantage of this new mechanism.”

Researchers from the University of Kentucky have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the causes of increasing rates of breast cancer among African women in Nigeria, and to identify why African and African American women in the United States tend to develop aggressive subtypes of the disease. The research team aims to understand the role of epigenetics, a marker of both genetic background and environmental factors, in the development of breast cancer. They hope to use their findings to create prevention strategies and more effective treatment for the disease.

Florida State University has received a $300,000 grant from Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women to address personal violence on campus. Through the grant, the university will be able to create programs for mandatory prevention and education about sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Funds will also be used to improve the Coordinated Community Response Team. Additionally, campus law enforcement and disciplinary boards will receive training on how to effectively respond to reports of sexual misconduct.

The College of Engineering at University of Illinois Chicago has received a $250,000 gift from the Knowles Corporation to support women engineering students. The Knowles Corporation is a global provider of advanced micro-acoustic, audio processing, and precision device solutions. The funds provided by the company will provide scholarships to high-achieving first-year women students in STEM disciplines. Additionally, funds will be used to create a Women in Engineering Summer Program that will teach junior and senior high school students about various engineering fields.