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.

Jackson State University in Mississippi received a $390,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for programs to increase breastfeeding among African American women. The grant will help the university establish a consortium of HBCUs, and support will include the Mississippi State Department of Health and community groups with a focus on improving prenatal education for women who deliver at Merit Health Central in Jackson.

The Center for Inclusion Computing at Northeastern University in Boston has announced that it is issuing six grants to colleges and universities to help them boost enrollment and retention in computer science programs. The grants ranging from $500,000 to $2 million were awarded to Barnard College, Columbia University, Colorado State University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and the University of Minnesota. “We are honored to work with computer science departments across the country to change the representation of women in tech,” said Carla Brodley, who is the dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern, and who oversees the Center for Inclusive Computing as its founding executive director. Dr. Brodley is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, where she majored in mathematics and computer science. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Spelman College, a liberal arts college for women in Atlanta, received a $1 million donation from Frank Baker, founder and managing partner of Siris, a leading private equity firm focused on investing and driving value creation in technology and telecommunications companies, and his wife, Laura Day Baker, an interior designer and philanthropist. Initially the gift will pay for the existing spring tuition balances of nearly 50 members of Spelman’s 2020 graduating class. Thereafter, the remaining funds will be used for scholarships to ensure that future high achieving graduating seniors have the financial resources to graduate.

Sweet Briar College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Virginia, received a $500,000 donation from alumna Cornelia Long Matson to support the college’s viticulture activities. Fields with the appropriate slopes, elevations, soils, and accessibility have been designated for the development of a wine grape production model over a three-year period. Rootstock for Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc varietals — identified as most appropriate for Sweet Briar’s microclimate—were planted in the spring of 2019.