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.

Aimilia Gastounitoti, assistant professor of radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for her project aimed at improving breast cancer risk assessments for Black women. According to Dr. Gastounioti, Black women are slightly less likely to develop breast cancer than White women, but significantly more likely to die from the disease. Her research will utilize artificial intelligence to develop and distribute an accurate screening tool specific to Black women patients.

Simmons University, an undergraduate women’s and co-ed graduate institution in Boston, has received a $725,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to provide scholarships to students pursuing STEM bachelor’s degrees. The funding will also be used to establish the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship, which will be held by Shreya Bhattacharyya, an associate teaching professor in chemistry.

A team of scholars from the University of California, Riverside and Northern Arizona University has received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, to study the mechanics of episiotomy, an operation for women in childbirth that involves cutting the pelvic-floor muscles to prevent vaginal tearing and other complications during delivery. While intended to aid delivery, the procedure often leaves women with lasting pain or other dysfunctions. The new grant funding aims to develop improved and safer guidelines for surgeons performing episiotomies.

Elisa Bradley, associate professor of medicine and cell and biological systems at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, has been awarded a $6.1 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to research heart function in women who have experienced preeclampsia. The project will investigate the genetic profiles of different racial groups in an effort to understand why women of different backgrounds experience varying risk levels for heart dysfunction following preeclampsia.