After seeing Black women as victims in an ongoing flow of news stories, Claudia Zanjanchain had an epiphany: Black women at Emory’s Oxford College needed a dedicated space to connect, share their experiences, find personal and academic support, and be in community.
That was in 2019, when Zanjanchian was the assistant director of Residential Education and Services at Oxford College. She decided to make her epiphany a reality. With the help of Brittany McDermott, coordinator of Student Support and Health Education, Zanjanchian launched the Black Girl Processing Space (BGPS) in 2020.
“The Black Girl Processing Space supports Black female students, faculty and staff to help them navigate Oxford while they’re here,” says Zanjanchian, who now is assistant director of Oxford’s Office of Campus Culture, Belonging and Engagement.
Since a specific department didn’t sponsor the project, the space didn’t have a funding source. Instead, Zanjanchian and McDermott searched for grants to help bring the program to life.
“We had all these ideas and knew we needed financial support to make them a reality,” says Zanchanian.
This eventually led them to the Emory Impact Circles. Launched in 2021, the Emory Impact Circles were founded with one goal in mind: to provide often-overlooked groups with access to resources.
The Impact Circles story began with Women of Emory, when a group of alums wanted to make their financial contributions immediately available to fund projects by faculty, staff and students that were uplifting women and girls. Since then, two additional Impact Circles have launched: Black Emory in 2022 and LGBT+ Emory in 2023.
Faculty and staff working on research projects, as well as student organizations, are eligible to apply for support from any of the Impact Circles. The project must address the priorities of the selected Impact Circle to qualify for funding consideration.
Funding from the Women of Emory Impact Circle helped the BGPS create events like vision boarding and goal-setting workshops, as well as take a trip to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to discuss the idea of legacies. In spring 2024, BGPS hosted a panel of Black business owners, giving students insight into the challenges and benefits of running their own businesses. The BGPS now serves as a community hub for 65 students and additional Oxford College faculty and staff members.
Funding the future
Alumna Michele Davis joined the Women of Emory Impact Circle because she wanted to collaborate with a community of like-minded people to support women and girls.
“It's incredibly rewarding to support women who are passionate about addressing issues and making an impact,” says Davis. “It's inspiring to hear their stories and work together to provide resources.”
Davis and fellow Impact Circle members heard some of those stories at the annual Impact Forum earlier this year. At the event, members met with grant applicants to learn more about the proposed projects before making their final funding decisions.
One group that ultimately received funding from the Women of Emory Impact Circle after this year’s forum is Empowering Women for Leadership in Global Health (EMERGE). EMERGE works to close the gap in women’s leadership roles in global health by providing development and leadership opportunities to graduate students at Emory.
“The funds that the Women of Emory Impact Circle provided are the foundation of this entire program,” says Kathryn Yount, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Global Health and EMERGE program director.
The Impact Circle grant funded the EMERGE pilot, which provided data demonstrating the program’s effectiveness. The program provides leadership, training and mentoring for women graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. EMERGE fellows reported increased confidence and ability in the vast majority of leadership, team management and mentorship skills.
“When you have the opportunity to hear directly from the individuals, their passion, drive and commitment come through in a way you can't fully capture in the written application,” says Davis. “Being able to ask questions, dig deeper and learn more about their thinking brings these projects to life.”
Hina Raheel is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a member of the inaugural EMERGE cohort. The yearlong program helped her gain confidence by seeing how women of color in leadership roles navigate challenges like microaggressions, inequitable institutional policies, and implicit and/or explicit biases from coworkers about their potential leadership capabilities.
Raheel also built a valuable network of women dedicated to transforming global health. Her goal is to become a subject matter expert in global health and women’s health research, paving the way for future generations of nurses to view global health research as integral to their field.
“We are all invested in empowering women and creating a legacy for women to grow into leadership positions,” says Raheel.
For Zanjanchian, the Impact Circles illustrate Emory’s commitment to serving people and groups who have not always been treated equitably.
“When you think about these three Impact Circles, they are groups historically marginalized within college campuses,” she says. “As someone who identifies with more than one of those groups, it’s meaningful to see how Emory is being truly intentional.”