Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Boston College was awarded a $100,000 Accelerator Grant from The New England Prison Education Collaborative to expand the college’s existing Prison Education Program to serve women incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham. The program allows incarcerated individuals to take courses and earn credits towards a college degree. Women in the initial cohort will participate in liberal arts courses in creative nonfiction, ethics, theology, and design thinking, all taught by Boston College professors who have experience teaching in prison settings.
The University at Buffalo in New York has received a $3.019 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to test a novel intervention designed to reduce alcohol-involved sexual assault (AISA) risk for college women. Scholars at the university will focus on the friend-based motivational interview (FMI) – a guided conversation with interventionists who will work with existing friend groups to develop personalized prevention skills and learn to identify AISA risk factors. Over 200 pairs of women friends will participate in the study, which will compare the FMI to standardized AISA intervention methods.
The Emory University School of Medicine has received a $2.5 million grant from the Action for Women’s Health Initiative to enhance the school’s Nina Project. Housed within the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, the Nina Project provides culturally responsive therapy, crisis intervention, and community-based programs designed to help women heal from trauma, strengthen resilience, and reconnect with their sense of purpose. The project also conducts research on improving mental health care for women.
Sierra Williams of Scripps College, a women’s liberal arts institution in California, recently received a $457,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new kind of protein-based weapon to fight drug-resistant bacteria. Williams, an assistant professor of chemistry, and her lab will focus on a group of proteins known as endolysins, which can destroy bacteria by breaking down their cell walls. The project aims to create a fuller picture of these proteins and develop a tool to test how well they work.