The Trenton Times published the following article on September 2, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Princeton’s Rita Allen Foundation extends charity locally and globally

By Michele Angermiller/For The Times 
on September 02, 2013 at 6:50 AM

PRINCETON — Tucked away in a building at Nassau and Witherspoon streets is a little-known foundation that has had a big impact locally and globally.

The Rita Allen Foundation, started by the late Broadway producer Rita Allen Cassel in 1953, is focused on bettering the human condition.

“The goal is to benefit people’s lives,” said Elizabeth Good Christopherson, president and CEO of the 60-year-old nonprofit foundation.

That goal was manifested locally with support of an Isles Inc. program that set up a collection of gardens and small farm plots in the Mercer County area a few years ago.

Now that program is yielding a steady supply of fresh vegetables for healthier urban living.

This summer, the foundation announced that seven biomedical scientists have been named as 2013 Rita Allen Foundation Scholars. The scientists, each nominated by research institutions in the United States and selected by a committee of leading scientists and clinicians, will receive grants of up to $110,000 annually for a maximum of five years to pursue innovative research on topics including the duplication of chromosomes — the strands that contain the DNA blueprint of the entire body.

Included in the list of recipients is Princeton University assistant professor Dorothea Fiedler, who is researching cancer progression.