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Non-profit

Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies

Website:

www.iwesnola.org/
Location:

New Orleans, LA
Tax ID:

72-1244155
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2019):

Revenue: $4,962,725
Expenses: $4,172,207
Assets: $3,670,878
Type:

Anthropology, Sociology (Social Science Research Institutes, Services)
Formation:

1993
CEO:

Denese O. Shervington, M.D., M.P.H.

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Founded in 1993, the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies (IWES) is a left-of-center nonprofit that provides public health services and research. It is based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and focuses its work on the reproductive and mental health of the Black and Latino residents of the city. Its CEO is Denese Shervington. 1 Its primary sources of support are left-of-center foundations and the federal government. 2 3

Background

History

The Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies (IWES), founded in 1993, is a left-of-center research and direct services organization. 1

From 2004 to 2022 it received federal support for HIV and pregnancy-prevention projects. Federal funds and left-of-center foundation awards also targeted school and community-based mental health. 3 2 It has been a research partner in national and international initiatives. 4 5

Guiding Constructs

Structural racism, trauma-informed care, and resilience are IWES’s guiding assumptions and principles. 6

According to the American Medical Association, structural racism is “the totality of ways in which societies foster racial discrimination through mutually reinforcing systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice. These patterns in turn reinforce discriminatory beliefs, values, and distribution of resources.” 7

Trauma-informed care is a method of treating people who have suffered intense harm. It emphasizes practitioner sensitivity to the harmful experience. 8

A meta-analysis of resilience studies, conducted in 2020 and published in Clinical Psychology Review, concluded that the resilience concept lacks an agreed upon definition. The Ryerson University researchers assert that assessment of treatment efficacy across a range of studies is therefore impossible. 9

Research Frameworks

IWES research frameworks have included translational research, moving scientific discoveries quickly into practice; 10 the socio-ecological framework which recognizes a multiplicity of factors influencing health; 11 and participatory action research which emphasizes co-production of knowledge between researchers and the community. 12

Funding

The primary sources of support for Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies have been federal and private left-of-center foundation grants and contracts. According to its 2021 audit, IWES received $3,319,187 in government support and $3,615,000 in private foundation contributions. 13

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been IWES’s principal federal funder. From 2004 to 2022, the organization was awarded $21,551,272 in grants and contracts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Office of the Secretary. These grants and contracts focused on HIV and other sexually transmitted disease prevention and treatment, pregnancy prevention, intimate partner violence prevention, mental health, and suicide prevention among Black and Latino youth residing in New Orleans. 3

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

have awarded multiple grants to IWES. 14 15 Other left-of-center corporate and private foundations, such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Merck for Mothers, the Grove Foundation, and ViiV Health have also funded IWES. 6

People

As of 2022, Denese Shervington was the CEO of IWES. She is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Louisiana State University School of Medicine, 16 and Chair of Psychiatry at Charles R. Drew University. 17 She has authored papers in peer-reviewed journals 18 and has published three books. 19

References

  1. Guidestar. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/72-1244155
  2. Grantmakers.io. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Accessed December 8, 2022. https://www.grantmakers.io/search/grants/?query=Institute%20for%20women%20and%20ethnic%20studies&grant
  3. HHS Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS). Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Accessed December 8, 2022. https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDetail?arg_EntityId=YJ1puWQlVNVQBDFfoU%2fGRA%3d%3d
  4. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Healthy Neighborhoods Project. Accessed December 8, 2022. https://healthyneighborhoodsnola.com/
  5. Global Early Adolescent Study. Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies. Accessed December 10, 2022. https://www.geastudy.org/partner-organizations/institute-for-women-and-ethnic-studies-iwes
  6. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Publications. Accessed December 10, 2022. https://www.iwesnola.org/publications
  7. American Medical Association.  What is structural racism? Nov. 9, 2021. Accessed December 20, 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/what-structural-racism
  8. US Department of Health and Human Services. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Trauma-Informed Care. Accessed December 11, 2022. https://www.ahrq.gov/ncepcr/tools/healthier-pregnancy/fact-sheets/trauma.html
  9. Liu, Jenny JW, Natalie Ein, Julia Gervasio, Mira Battaion, Maureen Reed, and Kristin Vickers. “Comprehensive meta-analysis of resilience interventions.” Clinical Psychology Review 82 (2020): 101919.  Accessed December 13, 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33045528/
  10. Translational Research Institute. What is Translational Research? Accessed December 9, 2022. https://tri.uams.edu/about-tri/what-is-translational-research/
  11. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Social-Ecological Model: A Framework for Prevention. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html
  12. McIntyre, Alice. Participatory action research. Sage Publications, 2007. Accessed December 8, 2022.
  13.  Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies Audit for Period Ending December 2021. Accessed December 12, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_audit/23710420211
  14. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Accessed December 10, 2022.

    https://www.packard.org/grants-and-investments/grants-database/institute-of-women-and-ethnic-studies

  15. W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Grants. Accessed December 10, 2022. https://www.wkkf.org/grants
  16. LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. Denese O. Shervington, MD, MPH. Accessed December 18, 2022.

    https://medschool.lsuhsc.edu/psychiatry/faculty_detail.aspx?name=shervington_denese

  17. Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Psychiatry Residency Program Faculty. Accessed December 18, 2022. https://www.cdrewu.edu/com/gme/psychiatry/psychiatry-residency-program-faculty
  18. Google Scholar. Denese Shervington. Accessed December 14, 2022. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C46&q=shervington+denese&btnG
  19. Amazon. Denese Shervington. Accessed December 14, 2022. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Denese+Shervington&crid=3EYGB2I6YA3FU&sprefix=denese+shervington%2Caps
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: December 1, 1993

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2019 Dec Form 990 $4,962,725 $4,172,207 $3,670,878 $243,446 N $4,932,311 $7,475 $22,939 $0 PDF
    2018 Dec Form 990 $2,099,489 $3,562,128 $2,304,931 $265,645 N $2,028,404 $9,650 $0 $207,000 PDF
    2017 Dec Form 990 $4,681,733 $3,113,958 $3,633,054 $131,129 N $4,547,205 $123,650 $0 $0 PDF
    2016 Dec Form 990 $3,000,790 $2,794,066 $2,028,345 $94,195 N $2,961,796 $34,200 $0 $0
    2015 Dec Form 990 $2,630,243 $2,212,599 $1,826,225 $98,799 N $2,621,060 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2014 Dec Form 990 $1,631,596 $2,056,805 $1,378,637 $68,855 N $1,398,757 $222,686 $0 $138,176 PDF
    2013 Dec Form 990 $2,616,216 $1,812,385 $1,789,560 $54,569 N $2,118,980 $484,292 $264 $0 PDF
    2012 Dec Form 990 $2,389,236 $1,709,819 $1,063,307 $132,147 N $1,773,524 $598,950 $362 $275,000 PDF
    2011 Dec Form 990 $1,322,600 $1,381,402 $411,096 $159,353 N $905,126 $415,806 $651 $350,000 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies


    New Orleans, LA