Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Clemson University received a $7.7 million grant from the South Carolina Department of Public Health to implement the Maternal Care Access Project in underserved communities throughout the state. The grant will fund the purchase and operations of a mobile maternity unit, which will expand access to high quality maternal health services like preconception counseling and prenatal and postpartum care in areas with limited health care access.
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, was awarded a $30 million, 10-year grant from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative to improve maternal and early childhood health care across the state. By combining the expertise of leaders in clinical care, economics, policy, and public health, the grant project aims to strengthen how families connect to care and support, thereby creating more effective systems of care for pregnant women and young children.
Meredith College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a $6 million gift from alumna Vickie Regan Rolfe to endow the Vickie Regan Rolfe ’71 and Chris Rolfe Science and Mathematics Building. The Rolfes initiated the gift in 2018 by establishing the Vickie Regan Rolfe Academic Excellence Innovation Fund for Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Their latest gift will continue to support the college’s STEM programs and strengthen student research opportunities.
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.