Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a home-based intervention program to combat HIV transmission from mothers to infants in eastern and southern Africa. The project will be led by Janet Turan, an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the university. Scientists at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, will also be involved in the study. Dr. Turan is also the co-principal investigator on a five-year, $1,721,830 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development that is focused on eliminating pediatric HIV infections and simplifying antiretroviral therapy for women in rural Kenya.
Historically Black Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, received a $95,000 gift from Clara and Jeffrey White for the school’s Building the Past, Claiming the Future Campaign. As a result of the gift, the university will name three different rooms in the Peters Media Center in the Whites’ honor.
The College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, received a $50,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund five, $10,000 scholarships for nursing students from underrepresented minority groups or students from a disadvantaged background.
Jackson State University, the historically Black educational institution in Mississippi, received a three-year $400,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support research in the areas of chemical biology, drug discovery, and structural biology. The grant is under the direction of Victor Ogunbe, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
Historically Black Fisk University in Nashville has received a pledge from a trustee who wishes to remain anonymous at this time to donate up to $500,000 to the university in matching funds for all gifts to the university before June 30.
