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.

The School of Social Work at Boston College received a $313,558 grant from the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Department of Justice for a research project that aims to aid adolescent survivors of sexual assault. The grant program is under the direction of Jessica Shaw, an assistant professor at the School of Social Work. Dr. Shaw is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in ecological-community psychology from Michigan State University.

Spelman College, the historically Black liberal arts educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a $5 million gift from Boston-based hedge fund manager Seth Klarman and his wife Beth. The gift will be earmarked for scholarships and for emergency funds for students who need the money to stay in school.

The Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and University of Kentucky are partners in a four-year, $1 million grant to conduct research on the pathobiology underlying the differences in aortic disease between men and women. Aortic disease is more common among men than women but tends to be more severe with women.

Texas Woman’s University received a grant totaling nearly $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a program that seeks to incorporate global perspectives and experimental learning into the university’s undergraduate humanities courses. The program will be directed by Gretchen Busl and Ashley Bender, both assistant professors in the department of English, Speech, and Foreign Languages.