Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies

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

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At-A-Glance

Type: Non-profit, 501(c)(3)
Issue Areas: Identity Politics (for race-based policy/activism), Healthcare Policy
Website: www.iwesnola.org
Formation:

1993

CEO:

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

Location: New Orleans, LA View on map
Tax ID: 72-1244155
Most Recent Filing: 2024
Budget (2024): Assets: $9,613,293 Revenue: $8,230,037 Expenses: $3,575,507

Contents

    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

    Financial Statistics

    Total Assets

    Total Revenue

    Total Expenses

    YearTotal AssetsTotal RevenueTotal ExpensesFiling
    2024 $9,613,293 $8,230,037 $3,575,507 View
    2023 $5,076,249 $3,890,212 $4,676,810 View
    2022 $6,090,986 $5,335,757 $5,467,627 View
    2021 $6,430,304 $8,036,478 $5,235,547 View
    2020 $3,991,713 $3,491,167 $4,130,058 View

    Prior year filings: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

    Revenue Detail

    Expenses Detail

    Employee Compensation

    • Number of Employees: 31

    Highest Earning Employees

    EmployeeTitleTotal Compensation
    Lisa RichardsonPresident & CEO$231,718

    Grant Activity

    All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:

    • Total Grant Value: $25,472,288
    • Number of Grants: 109
    • Number of Funders: 28

    Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years:

    AmountYearFunderSubject
    $2,000,0002024 MacKenzie ScottIWES is dedicated to improving the mental, physical and spiritual health and quality of life for women, their families and communities of color, particularly among marginalized populations, using community-engaged research, programs, training and advocacy.
    $1,500,0002021 W.K. Kellogg Foundationimprove children's academic and developmental outcomes by screening students for trauma and providing educators with professional development to identify and provide trauma responsive instruction and interventions
    $1,455,0002020 United States Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Assistant Secretary for HealthBelieve in youth! Louisiana 2.0
    $1,200,0002022 Robert Wood Johnson FoundationTo support and translate community-based participatory research into community members' leadership and power affecting local multisector systems change toward more racially equitable, aligned healthcare and public health systems.
    $1,000,0002021 The David and Lucile Packard FoundationTo conduct the Global Early Adolescent Study in New Orleans, Louisiana
    $800,0002022 Robert Wood Johnson FoundationTo provide general operating support for the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies.
    $600,0002025 The David and Lucile Packard Foundationto support Amandla Group's work on maternal and child health in Louisiana
    $600,0002021 The David and Lucile Packard FoundationTo support the enhancement and expansion of the Creating A Future Together (CraFT) project
    $300,0002023 W.K. Kellogg Foundationimprove community-led maternal and child health advocacy through the expansion of the New Orleans Maternal Child Health Coalition with capacity building and staff support
    $300,0002023 W.K. Kellogg Foundationprovide general operating support to help the organization advance its mission of improving the physical, mental, and spiritual health and quality of life for women and communities of color
    $250,0002021 W.K. Kellogg Foundationfoster strong socio-emotional support for children and families seeking asylum in New Mexico by developing a trauma responsive continuum for emergency shelter providers that promotes healthy, safety and well-being
    $200,0002023 W.K. Kellogg Foundationpromote the socio-emotional well-being of refugee and newcomer children in Bernalillo County, New Mexico by providing holistic, social emotional supports that thoughtfully engage families, educators and school administrators
    $200,0002023 The David and Lucile Packard Foundationfor general support
    $150,0002020 W.K. Kellogg FoundationImprove healthy living opportunities for children by addressing systemic racial inequities in the educational and mental health care systems in New Orleans
    $100,0002020 The David and Lucile Packard FoundationTo support NOW, LOVE to expand its network, leadership development and activities in Louisiana
    $61,9562024 The Administrators of the Tulane Educational FundSUBCONTRACT GRANT AWARD
    $60,0002022 The Grove FoundationFor the Working to Institutionalize Sex Education (WISE) initiative 2021-2023
    $60,0002021 The Grove FoundationWISE 2021-2023
    $60,0002020 The Grove FoundationWISE 5.0
    $50,1502024 United Way of Southeast LouisianaGRANT FUNDING & DESIGNATED GIFTS
    $50,0002023 United Way of Southeast LouisianaGRANT FUNDING
    $49,9942021 Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundFor grant recipient's exempt purposes
    $45,0002021 United Way of Southeast LouisianaGRANT FUNDING
    $42,8172024 The Administrators of the Tulane Educational FundSUBCONTRACT GRANT AWARD
    $42,8162024 The Administrators of the Tulane Educational FundSUBCONTRACT GRANT AWARD

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    Financials, employee compensation, and grant information provided by Candid.

    Mentioned in this Article

    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