Engineering’s Shaniel Bowen Named Fellow for Health Work

Shaniel Bowen, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was named a Ford Foundation fellow this spring for her research on women’s health.

Bowen, whose research focuses on bioengineering, has been studying ways to better assess repairs for pelvic organ prolapse, a common adversity that occurs when the muscles and tissues that support the pelvic organs weaken and allow the organs to push against the vagina. Surgical repair for this often fails within five years and requires reoperation, but the exact causes of this failure are unknown.

The Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.