Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Spelman College, an educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a $2 million donation from the Arcus Foundation to establish the first-ever Queer studies chair at a historically Black college or university. The chair will honor Audre Lorde, the poet, author, civil rights activist, and feminist icon. Lorde was a graduate of Hunter College in New York City and earned a master’s degree at Columbia University. She taught in the City University of New York System for many years. She died in 1992 at the age of 58 after a long battle with breast cancer.
Boise State University in Idaho received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Justice Department to help fund the university’s Gender Equity Center. The grant will fund a new project director position who will lead programs relating to cross-campus and community collaboration on preventing and responding to stalking, sexual assault, and relationship violence, as well as develop educational materials and marketing for campus-wide campaigns.
The School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis received a $791,317 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study factors that keep pregnant women from getting tested for COVID-19, to evaluate whether it is important to test women regularly during their pregnancies, and to determine whether pregnant women with COVID-19 need more specialized prenatal care. Megan Foeller, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and Indira Mysorekar, the James P. Crane Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the university, will serve as co-principal investigators.
Mount Saint Mary’s University, the only women’s college in Los Angeles, received a $15 million donation from author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The funds from this gift will allow the university to create new academic programs; expand women’s leadership initiatives; establish cutting-edge learning technologies; build a healthy and vibrant learning environment; and invest in intensive experiential opportunities.