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 California, Riverside and California State University, San Bernardino are sharing an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build awareness and understanding of exclusionary behaviors in STEM, and create a network of engineering leaders across the University of California System who are committed to achieving equity and inclusion for women faculty in engineering. The grant will support sustained recruitment, retention, and promotion of diverse faculty programs, starting in the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside and will be expanded through a partnership with the University of California Engineering Deans’ Council. Leading the project is Kelley Barsanti, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of California, Riverside.

Youngstown State University in Ohio received a $500,000 gift from the daughters of Marguerite Kauffman Thomas to establish a scholarship program in her honor that will support undergraduate and graduate women pursuing degrees in STEM fields. “Our mother would be proud that her scholarship was advancing the academic careers of women in STEM,” the Thomas sisters said. “She fiercely believed in education and the city of Youngstown.”

The University of California, Davis received a $250,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to further advance STEM faculty diversity by assisting underrepresented minorities and women with research development and family care during and after the coronavirus pandemic. The goal is to help a diverse group of outstanding STEM faculty as they recover from the career disruptions caused by COVID-19. Moving forward, these interventions present innovative and necessary ways to support and enhance the careers of STEM faculty, especially those from groups underrepresented in their disciplines.

The Women’s Business Center at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina received a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The grant will fund projects that aim to improve service delivery, training, and support provided to women-owned businesses impacted by COVID-19. Recipients of these grants are required to provide counseling, technical and financial skill development, comprehensive business assessments, and mentoring services to women interested in starting or growing a small business.