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.

Alcorn State University in Mississippi received a two-year, $254,000 grant from NEO Philanthropy Inc. to support the university’s School of Nursing Brave Reproductive Health Project. The grant will fund a mobile facility that will offer gynecological examinations and birth control services to teenage women in rural areas.

Alabama State University in Montgomery received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund programs to increase the number of women and minorities in nanobiotechnology and other STEM fields.

The University of Kentucky received a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct research on the effects of e-cigarettes on pregnant women and their babies. The study will compare outcomes on three groups of test subjects: Mothers who use e-cigarettes, mothers who smoke traditional cigarettes, and those who smoke both during pregnancy. The research project will be under the direction of Kristin Ashford an associate professor in the university’s College of Nursing.

Hollins University, a women’s college in Roanoke, Virginia, received a $100,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a new faculty development program in critical thinking and writing.

Mississippi State University received a $280,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for a HIV intervention program for African American women in rural areas. The grant program will be under the direction of Kristina Hood, an assistant professor of psychology at the university. Dr. Hood is a graduate of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. She holds three master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Syracuse University in New York received a $155,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice for research on methods for forensic scientists to easily identify male reproductive cells without the need for DNA analysis. The research will seek to develop a method to improve on the way body fluids are analyzed by law enforcement authorities in sexual assault and other investigations.

Jackson State University in Mississippi received a five-year, $749,273 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand its ADVANCE Women of Color Summer Writing Retreat to six other higher education institutions. The program is under the director of Loretta A. Moore, vice president for research and federal relations at Jackson State University.