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.
Alcorn State University, the historically Black educational institution in Mississippi, received a three-year $900,000 grant from the Mississippi State Department of Education to provide professional development programs for mathematics teachers with the goal of reducing the mathematics achievement gap in public schools in the state. In each of the next three years, 50 teachers will attend a summer institute at the Alcorn campus.
Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, received a five-year $1 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Health to develop a program to use exercise and lifestyle education to reduce the incidence of dementia in the African American community.
The University of Alabama Birmingham received a grant from the Center for Healthy African American Men through Partnerships (CHAAMPS), a consortium of regional academic centers and community organizations. The grant will fund research to develop a program to promote healthy behaviors among African American men that will lead to a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease. The research is under the direction of Larrell Wilkinson, an assistant professor of community health and human services. Dr. Wilkinson is a graduate of Tennessee State University and holds a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in health services policy and management from the University of South Carolina.
Wayne State University in Detroit received a five-year, $3.6 million grant to support its Initiative for Maximizing Student Development program. The initiative seeks to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups who major in STEM fields. The program was initially established in 1978. It is led by Joseph Dunbar, associate vice president for research at Wayne State University and Rasheeda Zafar, the program’s coordinator.
Historically Black Jackson State University in Mississippi received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Jackson State University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship within the College of Business. The center will provide training, mentoring, counseling, and modest funding for members of the university community to transition their research into entrepreneurial endeavors.
