Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research (IWHR) Program Initiatives

The Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Program will include several focused activities that will broaden the experience of Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research (IWHR) Scholars and emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary aspects in women's health research.  These venues are likely to provide opportunities to initiate non-traditional cross-disciplinary collaborations among the laboratories of the IWHR Scholars and the training faculty.  They will foster interactions in the study of unique aspects of Women's Health.

This monthly forum includes presentations by local and outside national experts in the field of public health.  Participation by IWHR Scholars will foster bi-directional interactions between the research efforts highlighted in the current proposal and on-going clinical and educational accomplishments of the Women's Health Grand Rounds program.

This monthly journal club focuses on issues related to Women's Health and will be organized by a group of mentors and their IWHR Scholars.  The journal club will provide a forum to critically review current papers in the primary literature.  This format will allow the Scholars to interact on an informal basis, and will teach them to:  (1) evaluate experimental design, (2) assess the validity of conclusions and (3) fit new experimental findings into the body of literature.  In addition, Scholars will be able to practice oral presentations for national meetings in a supportive environment that will allow them to be evaluated in terms of organization, clarity and effectiveness of visual materials.  In addition, IWHR Scholars will be expected to participate in ongoing journal clubs in their specific area of research.

An annual symposium will be held to focus on program participants' accomplishments and highlight a national speaker on Women's Health.  Attendance by all Scholars, faculty mentors, and members of the Advisory Board is expected, and invitations extended to other UC Davis colleagues to raise awareness of the BIRCWH program.  Each Scholar will be expected to present the results of their research orally or as a poster.  Presentations will be prepared in conjunction with the mentor.  Additional research presentations on Women's Health research, given by IWHR Scholars and other UC Davis faculty, will further enrich the symposium and raise awareness of linkages amongst the foci of the BIRWCH program.  The one-day symposium will culminate with a lecture by a national expert in an area of Women's Health (nominated by the Scholars).

The IWHR Scholars will be encouraged to attend the Women in Medicine and Life Sciences seminar series, which is currently run by the School of Medicine.  This program provides seminars from prominent women scientists in a variety of fields, as well as workshops for women scientists, addressing such topics as leadership, conflict management, negotiation skills and gender-based salary equity.  The Women in Medicine group, run through the School of Medicine, offers quarterly half-day events for women. Topics have included leadership, conflict management, negotiation skills and gender-based salary equity.