Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Statistics show that Black women have the second-highest rate of all new HIV infections in the United States. A new $709,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow researchers at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Morehouse School of Medicine to refine and test “in-the-kNOW,” a mobile app specifically designed for Black women. The goal is to incorporate portable cultural- and context-relevant messaging strategies to close information and awareness gaps in higher-risk populations. To achieve this, the app offers personalized messaging to promote HIV preventative behaviors among its users. Rasheeta Chandler, an assistant professor at the Emory University School of Nursing, is the principal investigator.
Harris-Stowe State University, a historically Black educational institution in St. Louis, received a three-year, $2 million grant from the United Health Foundation to establish an undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics. The grant will be used to develop the curriculum, for outreach programs to local high schools, and for up to 25 scholarships.
The College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at historically Black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University received a three-year, $5,130,692 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The college will use the grant to renovate and modernize the vivarium, the university’s biomedical research facility. The project will also include upgrades to equipment and control systems at the facility.
The College of Health Sciences at historically Black Jackson State University in Mississippi received a $10 million cooperative grant from the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The grant will establish a public health informatics and technology workforce development program to train public-health professionals in collecting scientific data for improving clinical and medical decisions. The university will also use the collaborative grant to partner with Alcorn State University’s Cora S. Balmat School of Nursing in Lorman, Mississippi, to develop curricula for training Alcorn students in nursing informatics.
