Women’s Health Research: Understanding the Roles of Sex and Gender

Jill B. Becker, PhD

In addition to her role at Biology of Sex Differences, Jill Becker is a Research Professor at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, Patricia Y. Gurin Collegiate Professor of Psychology and Chair of Biopsychology in the Department of Psychology, Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Senior Scholar in the Neuroscience Program, and in the Reproductive Sciences Program.

Jill Becker, PhD, has been studying sex differences in and sexual differentiation of the neural systems mediating drug abuse and motivation for over thirty years.  Dr. Becker’s early research laid the groundwork for these studies by demonstrating that there is a sex difference in dopamine release from the striatum, this sex difference is affected by neonatal and adolescent hormone manipulations and that estradiol modulates the release of dopamine in the striatum of female rats. Her research has gone on to elucidate the mechanisms mediating the rapid and direct effect of estradiol on the striatum of females. Experiments in the laboratory investigate the effects of psychomotor stimulants on behavior in rat and how ovarian hormones act in the brain to influence drug taking behaviors. More recently, Dr. Becker has been studying the neural mechanisms mediating sex differences in preference for cocaine and cocaine-taking behavior in the laboratory rat. Her lab is also investigating the mechanisms mediating the effect of estradiol to change a female rat’s motivation for food to motivation for a mate. Methods employed include in vivo microdialysis and fast scan cyclic voltammetry as well as drug self-administration and operant conditioning paradigms. In all experimental programs they seek to tie the behavioral measures to underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The findings from Dr. Becker’s basic research parallel well what is reported in the clinical literature, for example, women accelerate drug taking more rapidly than do men. Her laboratory is currently funded by grants from the NIH and NSF.

Janine Austin Clayton, MD

Dr. Clayton is Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health and Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is the architect of the NIH policy requiring scientists to consider sex as a biological variable across the research spectrum. This policy is part of NIH’s initiative to enhance reproducibility through rigor and transparency. As co-chair of the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Clayton also leads NIH’s efforts to advance women in science careers.

Prior to joining the ORWH, Dr. Clayton was the Deputy Clinical Director of the National Eye Institute (NEI) for seven years. A board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Clayton’s research interests include autoimmune ocular diseases and the role of sex and gender in health and disease. She is the author of more than 120 scientific publications, journal articles, and book chapters.

Dr. Clayton, a native Washingtonian, received her undergraduate degree with honors from Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. She completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Clayton completed fellowship training in cornea and external disease at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital and in uveitis and ocular immunology at NEI.

Dr. Clayton has received numerous awards, including the Senior Achievement Award from the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2008 and the European Uveitis Patient Interest Association Clinical Uveitis Research Award in 2010. She was selected as a 2010 Silver Fellow by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. In 2015, she was awarded the American Medical Women’s Association Lila A. Wallis Women’s Health Award and the Wenger Award for Excellence in Public Service. Dr. Clayton was granted the Bernadine Healy Award for Visionary Leadership in Women’s Health in 2016. She was also selected as an honoree for the Woman’s Day Red Dress Awards and the American Medical Association’s Dr. Nathan Davis Awards for Outstanding Government Service in 2017.

Margaret M. McCarthy, PhD

Margaret (Peg) McCarthy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of  Maryland School of Medicine. Peg is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and received a BA and MA in biology from the University of Missouri. She then moved east to attend Rutgers University – Newark NJ where she received a PhD from the Institute of Animal Behavior followed by postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University in NY city.  She was a National Research Council Fellow at NIH before joining the faculty of the Department of Physiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1993.  Peg was the Associate Director of the Program in Neuroscience and the inaugural Director of the Graduate Program in Life Sciences as an Assistant and then Associate Dean before becoming the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology in 2011.  She was appointed as the Director of the Program in Neuroscience at UMB in 2019. Peg has been recognized with the Patricia Sokolove Outstanding Mentor Award by the Graduate Student Association, Researcher of the Year and a Champion of Excellence by UMB and named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women. She is a past-president of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences, a member of the Dana Alliance on Brain Research and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

For the past three decades Peg and her colleagues have been exploring brain development in an animal model to understand how the nervous system is formed in both health and disease.  She has discovered novel mechanisms by which male and female brains become differentially vulnerable to the impact of injury and inflammation which can have life long consequences for risk of neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. Peg is strongly committed to scientific training, having directly supervised over 3 dozen graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and hosted over 50 summer interns and visiting foreign scientists from Iran, Pakistan, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil and Mexico.  She is a highly sought after speaker locally and internationally and has published close to 250 scientific manuscripts. She is also the proud mother of two young adults for whom she shares credit with her husband of 27 years.

Mila Becker, Esq.

Mila oversees the Government & Public Affairs Department, which manages the Society’s public policy agenda and advocacy efforts. Her work includes developing strategies to improve policies that will impact research funding and policies, clinician payment, and quality of care.  She has worked extensively on women’s health and women’s health research issues and on global advocacy related to endocrine disrupting chemicals. She also serves as liaison to the Clinical Affairs, Research Affairs, and Advocacy & Public Outreach Core Committees and is a Board member of the Coalition for Health Funding.

For the last 20 years, Mila has worked in government relations for non-profit health related organizations. Prior to joining the Society in July 2013, she spent ten years at the American Society of Hematology as the Senior Director for Government Relations, Practice, & Scientific Affairs. Before that, she worked as a senior lobbyist for AARP where she was responsible for prescription drug and other high priority health issues, and she was Director of Public Policy for Partnership for Prevention, a coalition dedicated to disease prevention and health promotion. She holds a BA in political science from Northwestern University and a JD from Georgetown University Law School.

Kathryn G. Schubert, MPP, CAE

Kathryn (Katie) Schubert joined the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) as President and CEO in April 2020. Under Katie’s leadership SWHR developed a strategic plan focused on fulfilling the organization’s mission of promoting research on biological sex differences in disease and improving women’s health through science, policy, and education. She previously worked for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), where she served as the organization’s chief advocacy officer, growing SMFM’s role nationally and building its reputation in women’s health.

Katie is a trusted leader and consensus builder among women’s health stakeholders, particularly in the policy arena. She has served in multiple Board roles for nonprofit organizations in the Washington, DC-area, including as Chair of the Board of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance and as advisor to the John E. Lewy Fund for Children’s Health. She is a past president of Women in Government Relations.

Prior to SMFM, Katie served as senior vice president at CRD Associates, where she advised clients — including nonprofit patient advocacy groups, medical professional organizations, and private companies — on government relations and public policy related to health and biomedical research issues, among others. She has also spent time working in key legislative roles on Capitol Hill. She received her BA from Mary Washington College and her Masters of Public Policy from George Washington University. Katie lives in Virginia with her husband, three children, and dog George.

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Phone: (202) 496-5004