Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Spelman College, the liberal arts educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a donation from the estate of Alison R. Bernstein that will be used by the Women’s Research and Resource Center at the college to reformat audio-visual materials from the archives of feminist writers Audre Lorde and Toni Cade Bambara. The late Dr. Bernstein was a member of the Women’s Center’s National Advisory Board prior to being appointed in 2010 to the William and Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Spelman.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore received a $5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the genetic factors that increase the risk of breast cancer. The Johns Hopkins Center for Cancer Target and Development will examine the process of metastasis.
The Center for Women in Business at Texas Woman’s University has announced a new grant program to help women entrepreneurs. Up to 10 women-owned small businesses will be selected to receive $5,000 grants for machinery, equipment, technology, marketing or other business-related endeavors. The Center for Women in Business is under the direction of Shannon Mantaro.
The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame has announced the establishment of the Mother Theodore Guerin Research Travel Grant Program. The grant program is open to scholars of any discipline to defray travel and lodging expenses for visits to research repositories or to conduct oral interviews with women religious figures. The program is named for Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, a French missionary to Indiana who established the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, just north of Terre Haute, in 1840.
Ferrum College in Virginia received a donation from alumna Irma Smart that will provide the necessary start-up funds to support the new women’s golf program at the college. The college has had a men’s golf team for nearly a half century. Smart, an avid golfer, has been a member of the college’s board of trustees since 2015.
Dr. Geneco comes to her new role from Tufts University in Massachusetts, where she has served as provost for the past four years. She is slated become the University at Buffalo's first woman president on August 10.
The new presidents are Laurie A. Boeding at the Technical College of the Lowcountry and Melissa Frank-Alston at Northeastern Technical College. Both women are expected to begin their presidencies on July 1.
Dr. McEwen comes to her new appointment following four years as president and vice chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Earlier, she served in several leadership roles at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She received some of her education in the United States.
The new provosts are Barbara Rodriguez at the University of New Mexico, Bridget Chalk at Manhattan University in New York, and Jaci Lederman at Vincennes University in Indiana. All three women had been serving as their university's interim provost.
Dr. Howard joins Spelman from Ohio State University, where she has been serving as dean of the College of Engineering. She is a nationally recognized expert in robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-centered technology.