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Here is this weekโs news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Saint Louis University received a five-year $2,830,00 grant from the National Cancer Institute for programs to increase HPV vaccination and HPV screening to lower incidents of cervical cancer among girls and women in Nigeria. Currently, in Nigeria, only 10 percent of eligible women have been screened and 14 percent of girls are vaccinated for HPV. The project is under the direction of Juliet Iwelunmor, a professor of global health and behavioral science and health education in the universityโs College for Public Health and Social Justice. Dr. Iwelenmor holds a Ph.D. in bio-behavioral health from Pennsylvania State University.
Spelman College, the historically Black liberal arts educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a $10 million gift from Rosemary K. and John W. Brown to support STEM educational programs at the college. The Brownsโ gift will support the architectural, construction, and equipment costs for the collegeโs new Center for Innovation & the Arts, scheduled to open in the fall of 2024. John Brown is chairman emeritus of Stryker Corporation, a multinational medical technologies corporation based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Rosemary K. Brown is a long-time educator.
The School of Medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky received a $1.2 million grant from the Humana Foundation that will support cardiac disease screening and nutrition-based interventions to address cardiac health disparities among older Black adults in Louisville.
Historically Black Bowie State University in Maryland received a $1,589,014 Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program Grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programs to recruit and prepare Black male educators in early childhood/special education, elementary, or secondary education who can provide effective, culturally relevant/responsive instruction.
The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, a historically Black educational institution in Los Angeles, received a $150,000 grant Grifols, a biopharmaceutical solutions company. The funds will support a scholarship in nursing and the universityโs Saturday Science Academy program. The Saturday Science Academy exposes pre-K through 12th-grade students to fun and engaging science material in an effort to motivate them to move into the healthcare field after graduating high school.
Mississippi State University received a $347,959 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for development of a hands-on, research field school for students to help preserve a historic Black cemetery near campus. The cemetery was used by the Black community in Starkville from the late 1800s to the mid-1950s, with the oldest marker dated 1882. Students will learn Geographic Information System and Ground-Penetrating Radar analysis while also delving into archival searches and oral histories within the community. The project is under the direction of Jordon Lynton Cox, an assistant professor of anthropology
Coppin State University, the historically Black educational institution in Baltimore received a $2 million grant from Truist Financial Corporation to establish the Truist Hub for Black Economic Mobility. The hub will enhance the quality of advising, programming, and technology related to educational opportunities and career pathways for Coppin students. The $2 million grant is the largest corporate commitment in Coppinโs history.
Historically Black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina received nearly $400,000 from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to enhance the Collegiate Recovery Community Program. The funding will create the Bystander and Mental Health First Aid training programs, enhance alcohol/drug-free social activities for students, and increase involvement of student groups and peer mentorship.
Saint Augustineโs University, the historically Black educational institution in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a $490,000 federal grant to fund the Public Health Education Center at the university. The Public Health Education Center will support health and wellness education, student research regarding the long-term effects of COVID-19, and related programs. Funding will also support faculty, establish smart classrooms for students, and purchase research and lab equipment.
The University of Georgia received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development for the implementation of a program entitled Higher Education Conservation Activity in the Republic of Liberia in Africa. The program aims to strengthen forest management and conservation in Liberia through education, training, and technical assistance.
Historically Black Morgan State University in Baltimore was awarded a $420,000 grant by the Army Research Office to conduct pioneering, interdisciplinary research integrating mathematics with computational science, mechanical engineering, and medical research in the study of respiratory conditions and other lung diseases. Using high-performance computing, including mathematical equations, and lung geometry, researchers in the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences will pursue simulations of respiratory mechanics that can replicate the condition of lungs, and provide knowledge about respiratory patterns and rates that lead to pulmonary fibrosis, as well as asthmatic, chronic breathing conditions.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is partnering with eight historically Black universities on research projects involving data science. The awarded projects โ totaling $11.7 million โ have up to three years to establish institutes and partnerships to increase the number and research capacity of STEM students at HBCUs, accelerate innovation in a wide range of NASA science, technology, engineering, and mathematic research areas, and prepare the future workforce for data-intensive space-based Earth sciences.
The HBCUs participating in these research projects are:
Bethune-Cookman University
Fayetteville State University
Florida A&M University
Lincoln University (Missouri)
Morgan State University
North Carolina A&T State University
North Carolina Central University
Prairie View A&M University
โWeโre pleased to make progress through awards like this to intentionally build the STEM pipeline of the future, especially in communities of color,โ said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. โItโs fitting that we make this tangible step to build on the talent pool at HBCUs in our ongoing work to bring to the table all the talents and perspectives weโll need to send humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond, and do amazing science throughout the solar system.โ
โNASA is tackling how to use the latest techniques in data science combined with the volumes of data produced by our missions to answer questions about our changing planet,โ added Steven Crawford, senior program executive for scientific data and computing. โWorking with students from HBCUs will not only engage the generation that will be most affected by these subjects but will help NASA scientists and engineers address these challenges.โ
ย The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has announced more than $12 million in funding to support 26 colleges and universities across the nation mounting social justice-related research or curricular projects.
The foundation invited proposals from institutions exploring three distinct topical categories โ Civic Engagement and Voting Rights, Race and Racialization in the United States, and Social Justice and the Literary Imagination โ in an effort to help illuminate the significance of voting rights controversies in U.S. history from numerous humanities perspectives; demonstrate the complex import of race and racialization within U.S. culture and society; and highlight the role of the literary imagination in making and remaking worlds and societies, past and present.
Open to any accredited, non-profit, four-year liberal arts degree-granting institution in the United States with more than 1,000 full-time degree-seeking undergraduates and multiple humanities degree programs, the call generated more than 280 submissions from 150 institutions. From the initial applicant pool, 26 institutions were selected to develop full proposals and were confirmed to receive funding.
Several historically Black universities will participate in these grant programs including North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina Central University.
A complete list of the 26 grants can be viewed here.
Here is this weekโs news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Clemson University in South Carolina received a $3,445,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the creation of a Black Heritage Trail on campus and in the cities of Seneca and Clemson. The Black Heritage Trail will feature walking trails that connect heritage sites with interactive signs, artwork, and digital content that share the stories of local Black history and South Carolina historical markers at significant historic sites. The Black Heritage Trail project on the Clemson campus will be led by Rhondda Thomas, the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature and the faculty director of the Call My Name research project, which for more than 15 years has researched and shared the stories of Black people throughout Clemson University history through books, tours, exhibits and more. Professor Thomas holds a masterโs degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, a masterโs degree in literature from the University of New Hampshire, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Maryland.
Historically Black North Carolina Central University received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train teachers to work with special-needs children. Thirty-two teacher candidates will earn a teaching license in a special education-adapted or general curriculum, as well as training to improve the outcomes of students who have high-intensity needs in the classroom. High-intensity needs include a complex array of disabilities, including significant cognitive, physical or sensory disabilities, significant autism, or significant emotional or learning disabilities, including dyslexia. This population also includes students with disabilities that require intensive, individualized interventions.
Coppin State University, the historically Black educational institution in Baltimore, received a $3.9 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that will be used to fund a collaborative broadband internet pilot program that will improve connectivity and access for economically disadvantaged and underserved communities in Baltimore. Coppin State University students will be recruited to become Digital Navigators who will help low-income community members locate affordable broadband services and devices. They will also assist community members with learning to use broadband-enabled technology to foster greater digital inclusion. Nearly 30 percent of households in West Baltimore are without a computer. In addition, roughly 46 percent of households are without a broadband subscription.
The Toro Company is joining with the Atlanta University Center Consortium and its dual degree engineering program to expand opportunities for Black students to pursue careers in engineering. The Toro Company, headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, has committed $375,000 to fund scholarships for engineering students from Atlanta University Center Consortium member institutions. The grant includes financial assistance for tuition and indirect costs associated with student scholarships. In addition to scholarships, the company will provide paid internship opportunities for students in the dual degree engineering program to gain deeper experiences across its many businesses.
Here is this weekโs news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Renaฬ Robinson, the Dorothy Wingfield Phillips Chancellorโs Faculty Fellow and professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, received a $2,040,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to start a program that will help underrepresented minority faculty further their success in STEM. The program aims to support underrepresented minority faculty members at predominantly White institutions and provide them with the tools and resources needed to be successful biomedical scientific leaders. The programming will explore how to cope with race-related stress, avoid burnout, set boundaries, and more. The initiative also will provide training in publications and grant writing to increase NIH grant submissions and awards to underrepresented minority faculty. Professor Robinson joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 2017 after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. A graduate of the University of Louisville, Dr. Robinson holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Indiana University.
Alverno College in Milwaukee has been awarded a five-year, $2,890,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programs to increase the number of highly trained, bilingual, and racially and ethnically diverse school-based mental health professionals. โThere is a need for school psychologists who represent the communities they serve, especially in Milwaukee,โ said Jessica Willenbrink, an assistant professor in the educational specialist training program for school psychologists at Alverno and the project director. โThere are significant financial and scheduling barriers to complete a school psychology program, especially for underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups. Through this grant, we will be able to offer students scholarships, provide mentorship, and place them in a job in a high-needs school district. We hope that this, in combination with our flexible hybrid program that offers all courses on the weekend, breaks barriers that individuals from underrepresented groups face.โ
Historically Black Bowie State University in Maryland received a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for programs to increase the number and diversity of individuals entering the cybersecurity workforce. The Cyber Scholarship for Service Program at Bowie State will recruit, educate, mentor, and train three computer science majors and two transfer students from community colleges each year over five years. In addition, the undergraduate students will be engaged in research while enhancing their technical skills in critical information infrastructure protection.
Morgan State University, the historically Black educational institution in Maryland, has received a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch Black Queer Everything (BQE), a pioneering initiative that seeks to enrich the discourse of race and racialization nationwide with a specialized focus on the interplay of racialized blackness in the LGBTQ+ community. The goal of the program is to develop innovative research opportunities, humanities-centered collaborative projects, and transformative teaching and curricula to provide meaningful experiences, training, and mentorship opportunities to the next generation of scholar-activists in Black queer studies. The program is under the direction of Anika Simpson, an associate professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at the university. Dr. Simpson is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, where she majored in philosophy. She holds a masterโs degree in elementary education from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Memphis.
Here is this weekโs news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Tennessee State University has received a grant of nearly $5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for sustainable hemp fiber research that will promote market development of industrial hemp supply as a climate-smart commodity through incentives to underserved Tennessee growers enrolled in the program. The funds will be used to provide support and incentives to historically underserved farmers owning up to 500 acres to grow fiber hemp. The fiber hemp will then be processed and supplied to the motor vehicle industry as raw materials for manufacturing critical motor vehicle parts such as fabrics and bioplastics The project is being led by Emmanuel Omondi, assistant professor of agronomy at Tennessee State. Dr. Omondi is a graduate of the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He holds a masterโs degree and a Ph.D. in agronomy from the University of Wyoming.
African Americans are more likely to be living with HIV than other racial and ethnic groups. One of the significant factors related to HIV disease management is smoking status, as smoking negatively impacts HIV treatment, and people with HIV are more likely to smoke relative to the general population. The University of Houston received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the development of a mobile intervention for Black American smokers who are infected with HIV.
The Quantum Biology Laboratory at historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C., received a $1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Researchers in the lab will use the funding to build upon its previous work in modeling and measuring how quantum optical effects in cytoskeletal networks enable living matter to process information in ultrafast communication channels. The lab seeks answers to questions such as: How do living systems arise from nonliving matter? How does life organize from biomolecular building blocks? What is the role that light plays in the origins of life itself? The lab is under the direction of Philip Kurian, who holds a Ph.D.from Howard University.
Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, has received a $399,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a three-year applied learning research curricular project on voting rights. Bard College is collaborating on the project with three historically Black universities โ North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, and Prairie View A&M University โ and the Andrew Goodman Foundation. The crux of the project will study how the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlawed age-based voter discrimination, impacted voter disenfranchisement while also focusing on the role of college communities in the fight for voting rights.
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