Congratulations are in order! The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health announced Jillian Joyce and Alicia Cole as the winners of the travel award for the Menopause Society 2024 Annual Meeting. The award provides these two junior investigators up to $3,000 each to defray the cost of attending the annual meeting from September 10 to 14, 2024, in Chicago. Attending the meeting will provide both awardees the opportunity to network with health care professionals who specialize in menopause and the midlife health of women.

Jillian Joyce is a doctoral student of neuroscience at the University of Southern California (USC). At USC, Ms. Joyce works under the guidance of Daniel Nation, Ph.D., studying vascular senescence and Alzheimer’s disease. Before USC, Ms. Joyce worked at Columbia University studying preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on women’s brain health, under the supervision of Stephanie Cosentino, Ph.D., and Mary Rosser, M.D., Ph.D. At the meeting, Ms. Joyce will present on “Age at Menopause and Cognitive Complaints Associated with Digital Cognitive Outcomes at the Well-Woman Visit.”

Alicia Cole received her Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in chemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her research experience began in ecotoxicology, studying the effects of estrogen compounds from pharmaceutical waste on aquatic ecosystems. She is currently a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh studying the influences of psychosocial behaviors on cardiovascular disease risk in perimenopausal women. At the meeting, Ms. Cole will present on “Associations Between Self-Silencing and Inflammation in Midlife Women.”