FAMU Invests in Fearless Fund

The FAMU Foundation has an investment value of $142 million and an endowment value of $106 million. “This marks an historic moment in the history of the FAMU Foundation,” says executive director Shawnta Friday-Stroud, Ph.D. “We are charged with investing in and for the future of our great institution. We expect this investment to pay dividends for generations to come.”

?

“This investment from Florida A&M University is an exciting addition to our fund and furthers our mission to bridge the gap in VC funding for female founders of color,” said Arian Simone, General Partner and Co-Founder of Fearless Fund. “As an alumnus of Florida A&M University, having them invest in what we are building with Fearless Fund means all the more to me.” We definitely need the support of the corporations to bridge this gap because the 0.0006%, it’s going to take billions of dollars in order to even out the whole equity playing field. So we need as many corporations, as many venture capital funds, as many people who are in this space that are looking to invest in minority equity in order to help move the needle on thi

As California Reopens, Black Doctors Answer Nagging COVID Questions

As California Reopens, Black Doctors Answer Nagging COVID Questions

Tanu Henry | California Black Media

Can COVID vaccines affect fertility? Were Black people used in the COVID vaccine research studies? Do you still need to get vaccinated if you’ve already had COVID-19? What is emergency use authorization?

These are just four out of about 50 resurfacing questions a group of Black doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals answers in a video intended to penetrate clouds of misinformation about COVID-19 as it provides vital information that address lingering questions, still unanswered, that many people have about COVID-19.

The video titled “A Conversation: Between Us, About Us,” is moderated by Palo Alto native, comedian and San Francisco resident W. Kamau Bell. The video is produced with the support of a partnership between the Black Coalition Against COVID (BCAC), a national advocacy group, and the San Francisco-based Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a philanthropic non-profit focused on generating data and resources to equip policymakers and the general public with important health information.

Berkeley-based Jacob Kornbluth Productions worked with KFF and BCAC to create the videos. California Health Care Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund and Sierra Health Foundation also contributed to funding the production and distribution of the video.

“I was a part of the expert African American panel, which is a group of providers like myself – with doctors, nurses, community people, et cetera. This is a group that was created through National Institutes of Health to review the various vaccine protocols for the different companies that were developing the vaccines,” said Orlando Harris, a public health researcher, during the introduction of the video featuring him.

The healthcare professionals’ push to educate African Americans with the intention to reduce “vaccine hesitancy” is just one of many other similar campaigns around the country organized by civil rights organizations, government agencies, professional organizations, community groups, foundations and others.

The information they are providing comes at a time when California is taking major steps to relax social isolation guidelines, reopen large businesses like theme parks and restart in-person learning for children attending K-12 public schools. Last week, Gov. Newsom announced that the state is investing $6.6 billion into recovery efforts that include facilitating the safe reopening of schools.

On Friday, Mark Ghaly, California Health and Human Services Secretary, said he believes as more Californians become vaccinated the safter it would be to change the state-issued guidance on restricted activities. Theme parks could reopen as soon as April 1, he said.

“We feel like now is the appropriate time to begin to reintroduce these activities in some fashion and, again, in a guarded way, in a slow and steady way, with the other protective factors of the blueprint all sort of wrapped around it,” Ghaly said during the news briefing.

The medical professionals who participated in “Conversation” project say the information they

Keynote

Next Page »