Wednesday, February 18, 2026 – The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) is thrilled to announce two of the Women’s Health Visionary Awardees for the SWHR 2026 Annual Awards Gala. This year’s event follows in the Society’s annual tradition of bringing together influential leaders from health care, research, and policy to celebrate notable achievements, advancements, and innovations in women’s health.
As part of the 2026 Gala, SWHR will honor Jenelle Krishnamoorthy, PhD, and Alex Taylor with Women’s Health Visionary Awards for their notable contributions to making women’s health mainstream. An additional awardee will be announced this spring.
Dr. Krishnamoorthy will be honored for advancing policy as an industry leader at Merck, also known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, where she spearheaded innovative initiatives, championed research, and advocated for policies addressing the unique health needs and challenges of women. Dr. Krishnamoorthy recently completed her tenure on the SWHR Board of Directors, having served on the board since 2018 and as a member of the Executive Committee, through 2025. Dr. Krishnamoorthy is Senior Vice President and Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs at Merck & Co. Inc., with deep expertise in domestic and global health policy. In this role, she leads Merck’s integrated U.S. and global policy and public affairs strategy, steering enterprise-wide efforts to advance evidence-based policy, foster strategic partnerships, and expand sustainable access to Merck’s medicines and vaccines worldwide. Before joining Merck in 2015, Jenelle served as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C.; a Health Policy Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), with oversight of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and within the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, advancing U.S. policy in health, science, technology and the environment. Dr. Krishnamoorthy completed her pediatric clinical psychology residency and post-doctoral fellowship at Brown Medical School, where she conducted research supported by the NIH in the areas of childhood obesity and tobacco issues.
Taylor will be honored for her commitment to improving women’s health through her work at Perelel and for her leadership in building coalitions and elevating women’s health research advocacy. Taylor is a women’s health advocate, founder, and cultural voice focused on elevating women’s health to a national priority. She is the co-founder of Perelel, a Unilever-backed women’s health company offering OB/GYN-founded, clinically backed nutrition for every stage of a woman’s hormonal life. Through Perelel, Taylor launched the Perelel Pledge for Women’s Health Equity, a $10 million commitment to fund women’s health research and expand access to maternal care in the United States. In just five years, more than $5.5 million of that pledge has already been deployed. Taylor has also mobilized national attention through Perelel Universe, an advocacy campaign featuring Mandy Moore that launched a petition to Congress calling for increased NIH funding for women’s health research. The campaign garnered more than 30,000 signatures in a matter of weeks in 2024. She works with policymakers and institutions to advance women’s health research. She has collaborated with the Biden Administration’s White House Gender Policy Council, and she currently serves on the Board of the Foundation for Women’s Health and is a member of the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Innovation Network. In September 2025, together with SWHR and Hannah Linkenhoker, she co-hosted a Congressional Roundtable at the U.S. Capitol with Lupita Nyong’o and Mandy Moore to advance momentum around women’s health research and maternal care. Most recently, Taylor joined forces with Gloria Steinem to bring the women’s health research gap to the national stage by hosting a Talking Circle on women’s health, which was featured in The New York Times in fall 2025.
SWHR supporters will gather for the Annual Awards Gala to applaud these remarkable leaders in health care and celebrate their accomplishments on behalf of women’s health. The event will be held on April 16, 2026, at the Fairmont Washington D.C. Georgetown.
Sponsorships and tickets for the premier social event of the spring are still available. Information can be found here. Funds raised from the event will support SWHR’s science, policy, and educational initiatives. For additional information about the gala, please contact Development Director Julie Miller at julie[at]swhr.org.
++++
About SWHR: The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) is a national nonprofit and thought leader dedicated to advancing women’s health through science, policy, and education while promoting research on sex differences to optimize women’s health. Founded in 1990 by a group of physicians, medical researchers, and health advocates, SWHR is making women’s health mainstream by addressing unmet needs and research gaps in women’s health. Thanks to SWHR’s efforts, women are now routinely included in most major medical research studies, and more scientists are considering sex as a biological variable in their research. Visit www.swhr.org for more information.