2023: The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues awarded Dr. Mollie Price-Blackshear a $2,000 external grant through their Grants-In-Aid award. The purpose of this project is to explore the effects of self-affirmation and racial affirmation on resilience, perceived discrimination, well-being, and racial identity among online samples of African Americans. This work will also explore whether neutral vs. active control conditions influence these results.
2022: Kathryn Armstrong received the 2022 Arkansas Minority Healthcare Workforce Diversity Scholarship. This award is offered by the Arkansas Minority Health Commission to college students of a minority race who plan to pursue careers in the field of health. The goal of the scholarship is to help increase diversity in the state’s healthcare workforce, which could have positive effects on both the health of minority populations and the quality of care in Arkansas. Full-time scholarship recipients will be awarded $1,000 per academic year and part-time recipients, $500 per academic year.
2022: The National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education initiative awarded UCA’s College of Health and Behavioral Sciences $50,000 to integrate data science into undergraduate psychology education. This grant will help develop a data science workshop for undergraduates at the Southwestern Psychological Association’s (SWPA) annual meeting. The grant will also help to increase diversity in data science by funding SWPA conference attendance for 25 students from underrepresented backgrounds. Principal Investigator, Dr. Darshon Reed.
2022: The University Research Council (URC) at UCA awarded Dr. Christina Jeffrey $2,200 to fund a research study that will gather a working understanding of professors’ experiences of integrated multicultural instruction in their past higher education, as well as their own feelings of preparedness in incorporating multiculturalism into their own classes. Additionally, the focus group study will provide a platform for professors to share personal insights on the means of improving or better integrating multicultural instruction in Western higher education. Ideally, this study can serve as a progenitor for future large-scale studies on multicultural instruction in higher education. Within the budget includes funding for three graduate assistants, who will be doctoral students from our Counseling Psychology program.
2022: The University Research Council (URC) at UCA awarded Dr. Mollie Price-Blackshear $8,550 to conduct research examining the effects of self-affirmation and racial-affirmation among African American samples. The purpose of these research studies are to examine whether self-affirmation and racial-affirmation affects self-relevant outcomes (psychological well-being; resilience) and race-relevant outcomes (perceived discrimination; racial identity) among online samples of African Americans.
2021 & 2020: The Woods Family Foundation, Trustee Bunny Adcock, and the UCA Board of Trustees provided the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion a total of $18,000 for the Community and Race Oral History Project, which provided internship scholarships to five undergraduate students to conduct and record interviews of African American leaders telling their stories and lived experiences in Conway, Arkansas. Project Director, Dr. Angela Webster.
2020: The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded UCA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry a grant to establish the Arkansas Talented, Optimistic, Motivated (ATOM) Scholars program, which provides underserved students with a $10,000 annual scholarship. Recipients also have access to the Mentorship Circle program, which meets monthly to offer career advice and preparation, discuss research opportunities, and tour local and regional facilities. Project Directors included Dr. Marsha Massey and Dr. Faith Yarberry.
2020: The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas awarded UCA’s Minority Vendor Partnership Initiative $15,000 for the Businesswomen of Color Study in Arkansas and the Women of Color Business Owners and Entrepreneurs in Arkansas Report. Investigators included Dr. Kristy Carter, Dr. Riva Brown, Dr. Julia Chears-Young, Dr. Shaneil Ealy, Mildred Franco, Victoria Mays, Fredricka Sharkey, Karen Walker, Dr. Angela Webster, Adena J. White, & Kara Wilkins.
2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016: The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation awarded Institutional Diversity and Inclusion $137,000.00 for Project X, an early arrival program for marginalized men of color and mindset interventions in partnership with the College Transition Collaborative, a national coalition of over 20 higher education institutions led by Stanford University. Project Directors included Dr. Angela Webster, Dr. Kurt Boniecki, and Kaylon Bradford.
2018: Institutional Diversity and Inclusion received $10,000 for the Richard J. and Nancy P. Gallavan, Ph.D. Endowed Grant for Faculty Diversity. Project Director, Dr. Angela Webster.
2017, 2016, & 2015: The Arkansas Minority Health Commission awarded a total of $7,000 to Institutional Diversity and Inclusion for the Amigo Fest Health Fair. Project Directors included Dr. Angela Webster, Angela Jackson, and Manny Sepulveda.
2016: The Arkansas Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers awarded $1,000.00 to Institutional Diversity and Inclusion to host a Careers in Energy Engineering Symposium for historically underrepresented students. Project Director, Dr. Angela Webster.
2016: CDI Contractors awarded $1,500.00 to Institutional Diversity and Inclusion to host a High-Tech Careers Symposium for historically underrepresented students. Project Director, Dr. Angela Webster.