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 U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $1.2 million to the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta to create the Georgia Forensic Nursing Network. Once established, the GFNN will work with partners across the state to increase the number of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in Georgia. The program will be under the direction of Trisha Sheridan, an associate professor at the nursing school.

The University of Houston has received a $1 million donation from MaryRoss Taylor to establish an endowed professorship in the Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality. Taylor, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, moved to Houston in the early 1970s. She owned and managed The Bookstore for a decade and later served as executive director of the Lawndale Art Center.

The College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago received a $160,000 grant from the Knowles Corporation, a firm specializing in advanced micro-acoustic microphones and speakers, audio processing, and precision device solutions. The grant will support women students in STEM fields and will include funds for scholarships, a summer engineering program for 25-30 high school girls, and programs to increase retention of women in STEM fields.

Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, has received a $350,000 multi-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to fund research examining the benefit of support systems on maternal mental health. Researchers will explore how social support interventions during pregnancy affect the occurrence of postpartum mood disorders. Assistant professor of psychology Betty-Shannon Prevatt and assistant professor of child development Pamela Norcross are the co-primary investigators on this project.