Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Two faculty members at Meredith College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in North Carolina, have received a nearly $500,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for their project, “Advancing Insight into Maternal Social Support.” For their project, Dr. Pamela Norcross, associate professor of child development, and Dr. Betty-Shannon Prevatt, associate professor of psychology, will examine how social support interventions during pregnancy affect the incidence of postpartum mood disorders.
Utah State University recently received a gift from alumna Janet Osborne and her daughter Lisa to establish the Osborn Family Lactation Suite. Housed in the university’s Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, the facility will serve as a warm and welcoming space for nursing mothers on campus.
Rutgers University-Camden has received a five-year, $700,000 award from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM. The grant will support two endowed professorships for women faculty members, as well as a multifaceted program offering mentorship for STEM faculty and students, community outreach, and curriculum reform.
The department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center received a $2,145,000 grant from the Roots & Wings Foundation to grow the university’s certified nurse-midwife program. The new funds made it possible to immediately hire two certified nurse-midwives who were already working within the Medical Center as labor and delivery nurses. Going forward, the Medical Center plans to introduce at least eight certified nurse-midwives into its hospitals and clinics, with a goal of offering round-the-clock service by 2027.
Dr. Burris has served as provost of Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina for the past four years. She is slated to become the next president of SUNY's Buffalo State University on July 1.
Dr. Thompson's appointment marks a return to Union Theological Seminary, where she previously taught for three years. Most recently, she was the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Black Homiletics & Liturgics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Julie Sanford of the University of Alabama, Eileen Boris of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Itohan Osayimwese of Brown University, Jane Grant-Kels of the University of Connecticut, and Rani Sullivan of Mississippi State University have been appointed to leadership positions with professional organizations in their academic fields of study.
For the past two years, Dr. Torti has served as president of the College of the Atlantic in Maine. Earlier, she was dean of the Honors College at the University of Utah.
Dr. Martin has led Kilgore College on an interim basis since November 2025. She has been an administrator with the community college for the past 25 years.
The selected candidate should have expertise and experience in theoretical models in labor and public economics as well as in microeconometrics and programming.
The University of Arizona School of Music seeks a visionary and collaborative Director to lead its comprehensive music program through a time of opportunity and transformation.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania seek candidates for an Assistant Professor position in the non-tenure clinician educator track.