Cityscape

Slices of life and scenes in Richmond missioned for the ICA’s Belvidere Street façade, is an adaptation of the artist’s former work “No Such Organization (2018-2020),” a series of 100 gouache paintings of icons and symbols. Each painting is in response to a news article following the disappearance and heinous murder, in October 2018, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi who lived in Mclean in Northern Virginia. For more details, please visit https://icavcu.org/exhibitions/ mclean/ Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

NIH awards $27M to VCU’s Wright Center

Free press staff report

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University a seven-year, $27 million grant to provide new therapy techniques “to the community” and to reduce regional health disparities.

On Tuesday, VCU announced the grant that will renew funding for its C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research, which focuses on research and training to grow community engagement in that research, and increasing diversity in their patients and researchers in the workforce.

VCU officials said The Wright Regional Center works in clinical and translational science research and practice, integrating research, providing training to grow community engagement in research, diversifying patient populations, encouraging greater diversity among new clinician researchers entering the workforce and engaging in cutting-edge research in informatics.

The NIH grant is the largest the university has received from the organization, according to VCU officials.

“The new award will allow us to pursue the vision of the Wright Regional CCTS,” said F. Gerard Moeller, director of the Wright Center and associate vice president of the division of clinical research. He added that the grant will assist the university as it seeks “to advance health equity through translational science that actively engages diverse communities, trains a diverse research workforce and supports the rapid implementation of innovative clinical and translational science within the Wright Regional CCTS and throughout the national program.”

The Wright Center is part of the VCU Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, led by P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., who, in a news release, called the renewal a recognition of VCU’s strength and impact in clinical and translational science research area as well as its focus on reducing health disparities. (VCU officials confirmed that Dr. P. Srirama Rao is not related to VCU President Michael Rao.)

“Through this renewal, VCU will continue its efforts with transformative innovation, discoveries, training and ongoing overall impact on improving health disparities, new knowledge creation and patient care across our campuses,” said Dr. P. Srirama Rao. “It’s opportunities for collaboration and the valuable training to the next generation of clinician-researchers will have a tremendous, positive impact on our community, the region and beyond.”

In recent years, Wright Center researchers showed that there was an increase in deaths from causes other than COVID-19 during the pandemic that disproportionately affected Black patients; developed innovative technology-driven methods to engage low-income housing residents in virtual community advisory boards; established innovative tools to process and analyze community-based health data to address health inequities; and was selected to join an NIH project to enroll one million Americans to understand how biology, lifestyle and environment affect health across a diverse group of individuals.

As part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH is the nation’s medical research and is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world, creating hundreds of thousands of highquality jobs, according to its website.

UR receives $250K NIH grant for redlining research

Rob Nelson will explore racially motivated housing and health inequities

Free Press staff report

Robert K. Nelson, director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond, has been awarded nearly $250,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of redlining — raciallymotivated lending discrimination — on health inequalities. This sub-award is part of a five-year project at the University of Michigan.

The DSL team, led by Dr. Nelson, will create spatial data for industrial, commercial, and residential sites using area descriptions pulled from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and Sanborn maps, which are detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries.

“Our lab will provide historical expertise, analyze the data, and develop the study’s conclusions,” Dr. Nelson said. “Our team includes UR student researchers, who will help collect data and add images to the Sanborn maps through the mapping technique of georeferencing.”

Dr. Nelson, head of digital engagement in University of Richmond’s Boatwright

Memorial Library, is the editor of American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History. Dr. Nelson teaches courses on digital humanities and slavery. He was awarded the 2019 Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History from the American Historical Association and recently received a grant to support the development of an expanded, third version of the award-winning “Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America” project, which frequently is used by journalists and scholars studying and investigating redlining.

Leadership summit will amplify student voices

Free press staff report

Some 600 Richmond-area high school students will attend Teen Summit RVA at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on March 18. The daylong event is the first in a series of annual events designed to engage and connect regional teens, according to the program organizers.

During the summit, students will meet with experts who will lead conversations about gun violence, drug use, mental health and equity in their schools and in their communities. Students also will express their feelings and reactions about their summit experience through art and spoken word reflections.

“This innovative summit for central Virginia teens offers opportunities for them to connect with each other, hear from experts and speak up about issues important to them,” said Dr. Mervin B. Daugherty, superintendent of Chesterfield County Public Schools.

It will also give students the chance to attend the Inspire@Work Regional

Summer Opportunity Fair and explore exhibits, find career and educational resources and learn about job, internship and volunteer opportunities available to them.

Teen Summit RVA, sponsored by the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, will be hosted by nationally known, Richmond-based comedian Micah “Bam Bamm” White.

“Teen Summit RVA is a great opportunity for students to build their leadership skills and advocate for issues that impact their peers and our community,” said Jason Kamras, superintendent of Richmond Public Schools.

“When students come together, their passion, creativity and hope for the future are greater than any challenge,” said Dr. Amy Cashwell, superintendent of Henrico County Public Schools. “Teen Summit RVA is a tremendous step in bringing together students from across the region to make connections and spark solutions that cut across county and city borders. This is the start of something important for central Virginia.”

“So often with young people, groups and organizations talk around them and not to them. This entire event is centered on the idea of listening to students and hearing what matters most to them,” added Dr. Joe Casey, Chesterfield County Administrator. “We can’t wait to see what comes out of this event and those like it in the future.”

Students were selected and invited by their schools to participate in Teen Summit RVA; however, a limited number of slots remain open. Any high school student from Chesterfield, Henrico or Richmond counties who would like to attend should contact their school’s guidance counselor.

When: Saturday, March 18 from 9:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Greater Richmond Convention Center, 403 N. 3rd St.