5/4/23: The 6th Annual WHISPR Symposium and Awardee Presentations

The Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, is pleased to announce our 2023 Annual Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Stress Program of Research (WHISPR) Symposium and Awardee Presentations. The Symposium will be taking place in person on Thursday, May 4th from 3:30-5pm with a reception to follow in the Marshall A Wolf Conference Center on the 3rd floor of the Hale building at 60 Fenwood Road. The Symposium will feature keynote speaker Cynthia Rogers, MD, Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Balance F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Rogers will present on “Addressing Social Determinants to Optimize Perinatal and Neonatal Well-Being”.

The Symposium will also feature presentations from the 2023 WHISPR Awardees and from Sarbattama Sen, MD, Director of Faculty Development, Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, who will be discussing the Mama Sana Program at BWH. Register here.

If you are unable to attend the Symposium in person you can register watch in on Zoom here.

About WHISPR:

Established in January 2018, the Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Stress Program of Research (WHISPR) advances our understanding of how physiologic and psychological stress affect women’s health and disease, and vice versa, by supporting pilot projects, facilitating interactions among WHISPR investigators and other stress researchers, and hosting an annual scientific symposium for the BWH academic community.

The scope of proposed research includes clinical, translational, population, and basic research studies investigating interactions of physiologic indicators of stress (e.g., adrenergic, immune, neural, endocrine) and stress exposures (e.g., trauma, adversity, cognitive, affective) with women’s health and disease. WHISPR involves investigators from across BWH to develop new research and foster synergy among investigators in this interdisciplinary and cross-cutting field. Learn about past awardees here.

This program was established with a generous gift from the Gretchen S. Fish Fund for Women’s Health and Stress Research.

Agenda:

3:30pm Program Starts

3:35pm Welcome & Introduction of Keynote Speaker

Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc,

Executive Director, Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital

3:45pm Keynote: “Addressing Social Determinants to Optimize Perinatal and Neonatal Well-Being”

Cynthia Rogers, MD

4:10pm Keynote Q&A

Moderated by Laura Holsen, PhD,

Director of Research Training, Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology

4:20pm Overview of Mama Sana Program

Sarbattama Sen, MD,

Director of Faculty Development, Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Introduction and Q&A Moderator: Cindy Liu, PhD

Director of Psychosocial Stress, Diversity, and Health, Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology

4:30pm Introduction to WHISPR Awardees

Laura Holsen, PhD

4:35pm Awardee Presentations

Q&A Moderator: Laura Holsen, PhD

4:55pm Closing Remarks

Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc