Hunter College Associate Provost & Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Nicole Bennett has received a five-year, $635,000 grant from the Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM, sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation.
“Hunter College thanks the Luce Foundation for this generous grant,” Bennett said. “It’s a recognition of our excellence as a training ground for a diverse science workforce and an engine of social mobility for students from under-represented communities citywide.”
The grant underscores Hunter’s role as an anchor institution in New York City, as a venue for impactful research and incubator of young talent. The grant will support student scholarships and professorships for junior faculty. It will also free up another $635,000 in unrestricted funds for the CBL Women in Science at Hunter program in support of Hunter’s broader an initiative to promote the research and careers of Hunter College’s extraordinary women STEM faculty.
The CBL grant will be used for scholarships for three cohorts of undergraduate biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, mathematics and statistics, and physics and astronomy majors. A total of 60 undergraduates will receive $3,175 a year for two years. Funds will also support one-year professorships for assistant and associate professors in the STEM fields.
The CBL WiSH program will be directed by Anne Welsh McNulty Chair of Science Innovation Dr. Mandë Holford and coordinated by Dr. Bennett. From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Bennett was program officer for the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education, focusing on STEM development. An accomplished scientist as well as administrator, she earned a BS in chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The inspiration for the CBL WiSH program emerged from a Hunter conference in 2020 that convened more than 50 women STEM faculty to discuss strategies to mitigate barriers to their career success. It will meet regularly to highlight research achievements, develop marketing for research, and provide mentoring for faculty. Although designed with the expressed concerns of women faculty in mind, all faculty interested in professional development may participate.
About the Luce Foundation & Clare Boothe Luce Program
The Henry Luce Foundation was formed in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the founder of Fortune and co-founder of Time and Life magazines. Its mission is to empower and transform people, communities, and institutions by boosting access to knowledge and forward-thinking ideas.
Following the death of Luce’s widow, Clare Boothe Luce, in 1987, the foundation received a bequest totaling more than $60 million to encourage women to enter, study, graduate and teach in the natural sciences, in engineering, in computer science and in mathematics. The Clare Boothe Luce Program has funded scholarships, fellowships, and professorships for women students and professors since 1989.
