Endometriosis Caucus Reception for Women’s Health Month

Congresswoman Nikema Williams has been a fierce advocate for social justice, women and families throughout her political and professional career. As the first Black woman elected to serve Georgia’s 5th District in 2020, Congresswoman Williams continues to uplift the legacy of her mentor and predecessor Congressman John Lewis by fighting to prevent voter suppression and expand free and fair access to the ballot box.

She currently sits on the exclusive House Financial Services Committee. In addition to serving as Vice Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and co-chairing the Congressional Endometriosis Caucus, she is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Voting Rights Caucus, LBGTQ+ Equality Caucus and the HBCU Caucus.

Jenniffer González-Colón has served as Puerto Rico’s sole representative in Congress since 2017. She is the first woman to hold the office, receiving the most votes of any elected official on the Island in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Her priorities include spearheading Puerto Rico’s economic recovery, securing equality for the Island’s 3.2 million Americans under federal laws and programs, and ensuring Congress responds to Puerto Rico’s vote to become a State of the Union.

Dr. Bianchi is director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, where she oversees an annual budget of about $1.5 billion in support of NICHD’s mission to lead research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.

Dr. Bianchi received her MD from Stanford University School of Medicine and her postgraduate training in pediatrics, medical genetics and neonatal-perinatal medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bianchi’s research focuses on prenatal genomics with the goal of advancing noninvasive prenatal DNA screening and diagnosis to develop new therapies for genetic disorders that can be administered prenatally.

She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a past president of the Perinatal Research Society and the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics and on the Councils of the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Bianchi has received multiple awards, including the 2015 Neonatal Landmark Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the 2016 Maureen Andrew Award for Mentorship from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the 2017 Colonel Harland Sanders Award for lifetime achievement in Medical Genetics from the March of Dimes. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 2020.