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MacKenzie Scott Gift Bolsters Spelman College’s Strategic Outcomes
Spelman is among more than 100 non-profit institutions selected to receive a generous gift from novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the College announced Tuesday.
"MacKenzie Scott’s gift to 116 organizations breaks new philanthropic ground both in scope and in scale. On behalf of the entire Spelman community, I am honored that Spelman College is among the dozens of institutions who are recipients of her gifts," said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman.
Spelman will receive a $20 million gift, which it will allocate toward its strategic plan, designed to educate global leaders who graduate with a competitive edge, prepared to become successful innovators and change agents.
Now in its fourth year, the plan has as its highest priority the support of Spelman students and faculty. Funding will also go towards the College’s goal of supporting scholarly and creative excellence by bolstering its technological infrastructure; developing new sources of revenue; promoting curricular innovations that enhance the competitiveness of Spelman students; and improving
academic facilities.
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Tamara Pearson, Ph.D., C’96, has been appointed inaugural director of the Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM.
Established by a $2
million grant from the Department of Defense, the Center, which is the first of its kind, is designed to address minority underrepresentation in the natural sciences and mathematics fields.
Prior to returning to her alma mater, Dr.
Pearson served as associate director of school and community engagement in the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"With her intimate knowledge of our institution, and her broad experience since graduation, Dr. Pearson is the perfect person to lead its work to better understand and reduce the obstacles that women of color experience when pursuing professional careers in the STEM fields," said Sharon Davies, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Spelman. "It is both fitting and inspiring that our new center for minority women--the first and only one of its kind--will be led by a woman whose early exposure to the sciences happened right here at Spelman."
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Dr. Joyce Johnson, Spelman organist and professor emerita of music, was presented with the 2020 Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award by the American Guild of
Organists.
Created in 1999 to honor the memory of the Guild’s distinguished past president, Edward A. Hansen. The biennial award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the AGO.
A longtime member of the organist guild, Dr. Johnson has served in several AGO leadership roles including executive board member and adjudicator for competitions. She also served as a workshop contributor, a faculty member in the organization’s Pipe Organ Encounters outreach program and performed at regional conventions.
Following the presentation of the award, Dr. Johnson performed a chorale fantasia on "All Creatures of our God and King" by Janet Linker.
"I’ve only had one job my whole life, that’s at Spelman College," said Dr. Johnson. "I am deeply thankful for the connections I have been able to
make for Spelman students through my work with the Guild."
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Janina Jeff, Ph.D., MSC, C'2007, was recently awarded the 2020 Advocacy Award by the American Society of Human Genetics, the largest professional organization for specialists in human genetics. Dr. Jeff, a senior bioinformatics scientist at Illumina, a company at the intersection of biology and technology, is the
first African American and youngest recipient to receive the honor.
The award honors individuals or groups who have exhibited excellence and achievement in applications of human genetics for the common good, in areas such as facilitating public awareness of genetics issues, promoting funding for biomedical research, and integrating genetics into health systems.
Dr. Jeff is also the first African American to graduate with a Ph.D. in human/medical genetics from Vanderbilt University.
Her research career was focused on population genetics, specifically studying complex and admixed populations (descendants with African ancestry) and discovering population-specific genetic risk factors of common disease.
"I am inherently an educator and STEAM-activist who is deeply rooted in the community," said Dr. Jeff.
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Spelman College is known for educating global change agents, who are leaders in the classroom, in the community and in their careers. If you have an idea for a news story about Spelman faculty, staff, students or alumnae, we would love to hear about it. Submit your story ideas to spelmanconnection@spelman.edu. Check out the submission guidelines for the weekly e-newsletter.
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