Leadership & Affiliates

Dr. Joffe is the Executive Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she directs the Women’s Hormones and Aging Research Program. Dr. Joffe is also the Paula A. Johnson Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and is affiliated with the Division of Sleep Medicine at HMS and both the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care and the Breast Cancer Program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health, psychiatry residency training at McLean Hospital, and fellowship in Reproductive Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

An experienced clinician and clinical reproductive neuroscientist, her research focuses on menopause symptoms and midlife women’s brain health: mechanisms, course, metabolic consequences, and treatment of neuropsychological symptoms (depression, insomnia, thermoregulatory disturbance, fatigue) in women during midlife and undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Dr. Joffe has been continuously funded by the NIH to study menopause for the past 24 years, including as PI of 3 R01s and a U54 Center Grant. She is currently PI of the Brigham/Harvard U54 SCORE (ROSA Center) focusing on neural processes through which stress is transmitted to influence menopause-related neurocognitive and cardiometabolic symptoms, and an R01 examining mechanisms underlying the effect of the neurosteroid allopregnanolone on perimenopausal depression.

As Connors Center Director, Dr. Joffe oversees a comprehensive cross-institutional research program with two thematic priorities: 1) equity in the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases that affect women exclusively, predominately and differentially, and 2) impact of stress and adversity on the health of women.

Dr. Joffe’s academic contributions have been recognized through: HMS William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring award, BWH Distinguished Clinician Award, national Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Fellowship, Vivian Pinn Award for Outstanding Research in Women’s Health, North American Menopause Society Thomas Clarkson Outstanding Clinical & Basic Science Research Award, and HMS Department of Psychiatry Stuart T. Hauser MD PhD Mentorship Award.

Learn more about Dr. Joffe’s research work

View Dr. Joffe’s physician profile

Primavera A. Spagnolo, MD, PhD is the Associate Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, where she also serves as the Scientific Director of the First.In.Women® Precision Medicine Platform. In addition, she is a Lead Investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she directs the Laboratory of Sex/Gender Informed Translational Neuroscience. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Spagnolo received her medical degree and her PhD in neuropsychopharmacology at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and completed her postdoctoral training at NIAAA/ NIH in 2018. Her research focuses on uncovering sex specific and sex differentiating mechanisms underlying stress and trauma related psychiatric disorders, with the goal of identifying novel disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

As Associate Director of the Connors Center, Dr. Spagnolo’s work focuses on improving women’s representation and diversity in clinical trials and identifying novel strategies facilitating the inclusion of female specific and gender related data in clinical research. She has received numerous research grants and several awards, including an Excellence in Research
Award from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Manson is the Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Professor of Medicine and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School, and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Manson is a physician epidemiologist, endocrinologist, and Principal Investigator of several research studies, including the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Center In Boston (PI since study inception in 1993); the cardiovascular component of the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study (PI for 20 years), the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL; PI with Dr. J. Buring since study inception in 2009); and the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS, PI with Dr. H. Sesso since 2014). Her primary research interests include randomized clinical prevention trials of nutritional and lifestyle factors related to heart disease, diabetes, and other age-related disorders and the role of endogenous and exogenous estrogens as determinants of chronic disease. Other major interests include the role of vitamin D, omega-3s, and folate in the prevention of CVD, diabetes, and cancer and the role of metabolomics, genomics, and other biomarkers in predicting these outcomes. Dr. Manson has received numerous honors, including the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Population Research Prize, the AHA’s Distinguished Scientist Award, The AHA’s Ancel Key’s Lectureship Award, election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (National Academy of Medicine), membership in the Association of American Physicians (AAP), fellowship in AAAS, the Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association, the Bernadine Healy Award for Visionary Leadership in Women’s Health, and the Massachusetts Medical Society awards in both Public Health and Women’s Health Research. She served as the 2011-2012 President of the North American Menopause Society. Dr. Manson has published more than 1,200 articles and is the author or editor of several books and textbooks. In her role as Scientific Advisor for the Connors Center, Dr. Manson brings depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in women’s health research, advocacy and leadership.Learn more about Dr. Manson’s work

Dr. Rich-Edwards is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is leading the development of a family cohort/population database of sociodemographic information, medical history and biologic samples based on the 9,000 births at BWH each year, which will serve as an important resource for scientists across BWH and HMS. Her research focuses on determinants of women’s reproductive health across the lifecourse, as well as prenatal and childhood factors that affect the risk of developing chronic disease in adulthood. Dr. Janet Rich-Edwards also continued to develop a program in epidemiology research related to maternal and child health, an area to which she brings considerable expertise and grant funding. She is an investigator in the national Nurses’ Health Studies, where she has examined predictors of adult chronic disease, and is currently leading investigations of the predictors of pregnancy and fertility based on occupation and physical and emotional abuse. She investigates factors underlying the race-related mortality gap, and is a founding investigator of Project Viva, a prenatal and early childhood study in the Boston area. Dr. Rich-Edwards has been funded for a five-year NIH R01 study on Violence, Genes and Cardiovascular Disease in Women, a four-year CDC/NIOSH contract to launch a new Nurses’ Health Study cohort, and a two-year foundation grant to start a cohort study in Mongolia of the impact of vitamin D and milk consumption on childhood growth and development. Dr. Rich-Edwards is also part of the team that received the 2023 BRIght Futures Prize for their project on Trauma-Informed Care for patients with large bodies.

As Director of Lifecourse Epidemiology, Dr. Rich-Edwards brings her expertise in epidemiology research to the Connors Center and is currently analyzing the representation of women and minorities in all clinical trials in the US.

Learn more about Dr. Rich-Edwards’ work

Dr. Bartz is an obstetrician-gynecologist at BWH and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. She is the Associate Clerkship Director for medical student rotations and is currently the Medical Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s state-wide Title X Program and the Director of the BWH Ryan Training Program, where she has been innovative in expanding primary care specialist, resident, and medical student training to include evidence-based, women’s health care through simulation and through graduated models of training. As a result of her mentorship work, she has received several teaching awards and entrance into the BWH Faculty Mentorship Leadership Program and the Association of Professors in Obstetrics and Gynecology Scholars and Leaders Program.Her current research program focuses on the development, assessment, and propagation of best educational practices of women’s health curricula. The resulting publications describe reproducible educational initiatives for teaching medical students, residents, or emerging reproductive health providers and demonstrate the educational outcomes affected by these new curricula. By creating, studying, and disseminating these much-needed educational innovations, this body of work allows other women’s health educators to bring this content to their own trainees.

Learn more about Dr. Bartz’s work

Dr. Pace is a researcher with the Division of Women’s Health and primary care physician at BWH, and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of the Connors Center’s Global Women’s Health Fellowship.Her research focuses on the delivery of and access to preventive health care services to women in the United States as well as the developing world. She is particularly interested in women’s cancers and family planning. She has researched breast cancer screening behaviors in the U.S. following the 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations and has studied the complexities of breast cancer screening decisions in the US. She has also examined the impact of the Affordable Care Act on contraceptive costs and use. She leads research in Rwanda examining effective and feasible strategies for breast cancer early detection, and the quality of breast cancer care. Dr. Pace also teaches Harvard Medical School students and BWH residents in health policy and women’s health.As Director of Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy for the Connors Center, Dr. Pace has worked to influence policy at the institutional, local and national levels to promote the highest standard of health and health care for all women.Learn more about Dr. Pace’s work

Learn more about the Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program

Dr. Cindy Liu is the Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She has a joint appointment within the Departments of Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on culture and socio-emotional development, and race and ethnic disparities related to maternal and child mental health. Her program of research incorporates data ranging from behavioral and physiological data collected from the laboratory to population level variables from large survey research. She is the recipient of grant awards from National Institutes of Health, American Psychological Association, Sackler Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson, American Psychological Foundation, Harvard Catalyst, and Office of Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Liu serves on the American Psychological Association Stress and Health Disparities Working Group and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee. She has provided expert testimony before the Massachusetts State Legislature on parent mental health.

Laura Holsen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and holds joint appointments at BWH as Research Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychologist in the Division of Women’s Health, Department of Medicine. As Director of Research Training at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Dr. Holsen manages oversight of the Center’s pilot award programs (IGNITE, WHISPR, MLSC First Look Awards), supports and collaborates with fellowship directors to enhance the experience of fellows in the Center’s Fellowship programs (First.In.Women, Women’s Mental Health, Complex Family Planning, and Global Women’s Health), and contributes to strategic planning for the Center’s Research Training Program.

Dr. Holsen is a clinical neuroscientist working at the intersection of appetite, weight change, and brain, with a goal of additionally incorporating into these domains aspects related to women’s health and sex differences. Work in her lab examines homeostatic, hedonic, and cognitive control circuitry functioning and relationships with appetite-regulatory hormones and metabolic fuels in women with restrictive food intake disorders (anorexia nervosa, AN; avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, ARFID), appetite phenotypes within major depressive disorder (MDD), and individuals with obesity. In addition, Dr. Holsen has contributed to the investigation of sex differences in HPA-axis modulation of stress response circuitry in major depressive disorder, including studies on cortisol response and affective circuitry activity. Dr. Holsen has a long-standing dedication to training, having mentored research assistants, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty across multiple disciplines at HMS and the MGB community, served as mentor or co-mentor on NIH T32 and K series awards, and collaborator on various foundation-sponsored career development awards.

Dr. Goldberg is Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and Vice President of Research and Clinical Training at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Dr. Goldberg received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston. She completed a Family Planning Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and received a Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of California, Berkeley. While at UCSF, she served as Medical Director of the Women’s Options Center at San Francisco General Hospital and an NICHD Women’s Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Scholar. Upon returning to Boston, she founded and currently directs the Division of Family Planning and Family Planning Fellowship program at BWH and similarly founded and directs the Department of Research at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM). She has served as the Chair of the Clinical Policies Committee for the Board of the National Abortion Federation and currently serves as the Chair on the Family Planning Fellowship Advisory Board. Her research has focused on the use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion care, increasing post-abortion contraceptive utilization and evaluating clinical interventions that can both improve the quality of abortion and contraceptive care as well as expand access. Mentoring bright young physicians who choose to dedicate their careers to this work brings her much professional joy. She was recently recognized for this work with the 2019 Society of Family Planning Mentor Award.

Dr. Pace is a researcher with the Division of Women’s Health and primary care physician at BWH, and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of the Connors Center’s Global Women’s Health Fellowship. Her research focuses on the delivery of and access to preventive health care services to women in the United States as well as the developing world. She is particularly interested in women’s cancers and family planning. She has researched breast cancer screening behaviors in the U.S. following the 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations and has studied the complexities of breast cancer screening decisions in the US. She has also examined the impact of the Affordable Care Act on contraceptive costs and use. She leads research in Rwanda examining effective and feasible strategies for breast cancer early detection, and the quality of breast cancer care. Dr. Pace also teaches Harvard Medical School students and BWH residents in health policy and women’s health. As Director of Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy for the Connors Center, Dr. Pace has worked to influence policy at the institutional, local and national levels to promote the highest standard of health and health care for all women.

Learn more about Dr. Pace’s work

Learn more about the Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program

Dr. Polina Teslyar completed medical school at Tufts School of Medicine and psychiatry residency at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Prat Psychiatry Residency Program. She came to BWH as a Consult-Liaison Psychiatry fellow in 2013. Dr. Teslyar joined the BWH Psychiatry faculty in 2019 when she returned to our hospital to work in CL psychiatry and women’s mental health and reproductive psychiatry. Dr. Teslyar is the interim director of the Division of Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry as well as director of the Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry fellowship ad director of women’s mental health training for psychiatry residents and medical students. Dr. Teslyar’s focus has been on collaborative care across OBGYN, NICU, and psychiatry.