Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
The Center for Women Entrepreneurs at Texas Woman’s University in Denton is launching the AssistHER grant program, which will provide one hundred, $10,000 grants to women-owned small businesses in Texas that have been impacted adversely by the coronavirus pandemic. To be eligible for the grants, businesses must be at least 51 percent owned by women, have a demonstrated need due directly to COVID-19, and be owned and operated in Texas. The program was developed by the center’s director, Shannon Mantaro, and the executive team at the university’s Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership. Mantaro holds a master’s degree in communications management from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
California State University, San Bernardino received a three-year, $1 million grant from the California Office of Planning and Research to increase diversity in chemistry. With over 100,000 students taking chemistry courses in California annually, the study is designed to directly improve outcomes for women and other underrepresented student populations pursuing STEM education by using culturally-responsive, technology-enabled learning to address factors known to disproportionately impact historically marginalized groups in STEM.
The School of Public Health at Rutgers University in New Jersey received a $4.1 million grant from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study the effectiveness of mental health programs available to pregnant women across the United States suffering from depression. Perinatal depression, which strikes before and after childbirth, affects 1 in 7 women during pregnancy or within a year of birth. In the United States, less than 20 percent of pregnant and postpartum women who screen positive for depression seek psychiatric treatment before giving birth or follow-up care after the baby is born. The grant will study three different programs to determine best practices for improving access and quality of care for treating perinatal depression.