This fall, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) partnered with the Global Health Connector to host a women’s health event at the Science Summit of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80), for the second year in a row. The event, Transforming Women’s Health through Science and Sustainable Partnerships, discussed key developments and opportunities to advance women’s health research, education, and policies, presenting insights from successful models employed from grassroot initiatives to international collaborations.
Read more about the event on in this summary blog post here.
Thank you to our hosts and moderators from the day, Bleddyn Rees, Chair of the Global Health Connector; Kathryn G. Schubert, MPP, CAE, President and CEO at SWHR; Nicole Althaus, US Ambassador of the Global Health Connector; and Irene O. Aninye, PhD, Chief Science Officer at SWHR.
The event was hosted at Cure in New York City and live streamed for a hybrid experience.
The “Establishing National Priorities to Advance Women’s Health” panel featured Ayodola Anise, MHS, Senior Director of Operations at the Milken Institute Health; Angela Kaida, PhD, Scientific Director of the Institute of Gender and Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Deborah Loxton, PhD, Director of the Centre for Women’s Health Research and the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.
The “Translating Innovation Across Borders” panel included Delali Attiogbe Attipoe, MB, MBA, North America Director at Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative; Antonella Santuccione-Chadha, MD, Founder and CEO of the Women’s Brain Foundation; Zinatara Manji, MS, PharmD, Founder & Principal and Regulatory Strategist at Innopathwayz, LLC; H.E. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, MBBS, Founder & CEO of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation.
The “Elevating Women in the Workforce” panel included Roopa Dhatt, MD, MPA, Co-Founder of Women in Global Health and Assistant Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center; Sarah Hendriks, Director of Policy, Programme & Intergovernmental Division at UN Women; Shirley Malcom, PhD, Senior Advisor and Director of SEA Change at American Association for the Advancement of Science; Gabriela Rojas, Founder and CEO at SinReglas.
The “Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships for the Goals” panel featured Esther Ruiter, Head of Growth and Strategy and Business & Partnerships Manager at the Africa Health Business, COWHA; and Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, CEO of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.
During the “Empowering Women at the Forefront of Community-Based Care” session, H.E. Oluwatoyin Ojora Saraki, LLB, LLM, BL, FPH, Founder & President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, gave special remarks.
The event also featured special remarks on different women’s health topics, by Mary Lynne Van Poelgeest-Pomfret, President of the World Federation of Incontinence and Pelvic Problems (WFIPP); Mark Lawler PhD, FRCPath, Professor of Digital Health at Queen’s University Belfast; Laura Sugam, Director of Global Corporate Responsibility Reporting & Operations at Cencora; Ashley Szofer, Director of Alliance Development Worldwide Government Affairs & Policy at Johnson & Johnson; Siobhan Kelleher, PhD, Founder & CEO of OnaWave Medical; Roxanne Pero, MD, FACOG, FACLM, IFMCP, Medical Advisory Board Member at O Positiv Health.
Thank you to our event sponsors, Novo Nordisk, Cencora, OnaWave Medical, O Positiv Health, and Johnson & Johnson, and media sponsors, BMC Springer Nature and the Biology of Sex Differences Journal.
Many thanks to the additional SWHR and Global Health Connector team members who made this event possible, including Sarah Chew, Syreen Goulmamine, Monica Lefton, Julie Miller, Heather Smith, Alejandra Rodríguez, Maria Luquet, and Iman Amar.
Photos are credited to the Society for Women’s Health Research.
*Novo Nordisk has provided sponsorship to the Global Health Connector to help cover in part the cost of this summit. Novo Nordisk has had no influence over the meeting agenda or arrangements.