Sex and Gender Disparities in the COVID-19 Pandemic Webinar
Date and Time
– January 27, 2021, 12:00 PM ESTVirtual only.
The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) is launching a virtual speaker series titled Diverse Voices: COVID-19, Intersectionality, and the Health of Women, to disseminate key COVID-19 research findings that (1) are relevant to diverse groups of women and (2) incorporate a multidimensional sex-and-gender focus. The speaker series also aims to increase public awareness, understanding, and engagement with COVID-19 research. Each session of the series will include the author(s) of a paper relevant to the health of women; in plain language, speakers will present specific takeaways from their publication for researchers, clinicians, and the public. The goal of the speaker series is both to amplify research relevant to the health of women and to support informed decisions about therapeutic or vaccine trial and other research participation by diverse women.
The inaugural session will take place January 27, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. EST and will feature Drs. Ana Langer and Jewel Gausman, who will discuss their commentary piece titled “Sex and Gender Disparities in the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Ana Langer, M.D.
Director, Women and Health Initiative
Professor of the Practice of Public Health
Department of Global Health and Population
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Ana Langer, M.D., directs the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Langer is a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology, and she is a reproductive health expert. She joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in July 2010 as a Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Global Health and Population. Dr. Langer is respected worldwide as a leader in reproductive and maternal health, the translation of evidence into policies and programs, and the improvement of quality of health care for women and families. For more than 30 years, she has been a leading researcher, programmer, and advocate for the improvement of women’s health. Dr. Langer has published extensively on maternal mortality, technical and interpersonal quality of maternal health care, unsafe abortion, contraception, the introduction of evidence-based practices in maternal health services, and strategies to strengthen women’s reproductive rights. Dr. Langer is a member of the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health (ACRWH).
Jewel Gausman, Sc.D., M.H.S.
Research Associate, Women and Health Initiative
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jewel Gausman, Sc.D., M.H.S., joined the Women and Health Initiative (W&HI) in 2017 to lead a study on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Jordan that focuses on Jordanian and Syrian adolescent boys and girls living in host communities. Within the field of sexual and reproductive health, Dr. Gausman’s research interests focus on gender norms, women’s empowerment, and vulnerable populations, including refugees and adolescents. Prior to working with the W&HI, Dr. Gausman spent 8 years as a research technical advisor in the Bureau for Global Health in the Office of Population and Reproductive Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she managed a diverse portfolio of research projects focused on the social determinants of sexual and reproductive health, including projects focused on the influence of gender norms among very young adolescents and using social networking approaches to influence demand for and utilization of sexual and reproductive health services.