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.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has received a five-year grant totaling $1,295,411 from the National Institute on Aging to investigate ways that motherhood experiences shape women’s health and health disparities at ages 40 and 50. Researchers will analyze a survey of more than 4,000 women who have been interviewed regularly during the past four decades. The research team will look for health disparities present at midlife related to health behaviors, physical health, and mental and cognitive health. The research is under the direction of Mieke Beth Thomeer, an associate professor of sociology at the university.

Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, received a two-year, $440,000 grant from the Office of Research on Women’s Health of the National Institutes of Health for a study to determine whether cognitive impairment in chronic kidney disease is more pronounced in women and what factors may contribute to the development of cognitive impairment in women versus men.

The University of Houston received a $1 million donation from the family of Carolyn Macow Leatherwood, a longtime University of Houston supporter. She passed away last summer at the age of 73 after a long battle with Crohn’s disease. The gift is earmarked to support the women’s golf program at the university. Going forward, the women’s golf head coach position at the University of Houston will be known as the Carolyn Macow Leatherwood Head Women’s Golf Coach.