2019 Women's health research Conference


Keynote Speaker: Rebecca C. Thurston, PhD

Trauma, Harassment, and Women’s Cardiovascular Health at Midlife

Trauma, abuse, and harassment are prevalent experiences among women. These experiences have long been understood to be risk factors for poor mental health outcomes, but their relation to physical health outcomes is less well understood. Drawing upon both our epidemiologic and clinical studies of midlife women’s health, this talk will detail our laboratory’s findings of relationships between childhood abuse, adult trauma exposure, and women’s cardiovascular health at midlife. We pay particular attention to exposures prevalent among women, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Key mechanisms and modifiers of relationships between trauma and health will be considered. Clinical and public health implications of these findings will be discussed.

Dr. Thurston is Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Psychology, and Director of the Women’s Biobehavioral Health Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Thurston’s research focuses on midlife women’s cardiovascular health, including testing how biological, psychological, and social processes interact over life to influence health at midlife. She focuses on biological and psychosocial factors prevalent in women, including trauma, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. Dr. Thurston is Principal Investigator (PI) of NIH R01-funded studies on women’s cardiovascular and neurocognitive health at midlife and is PI a NIH K24 award supporting interdisciplinary mentoring and training in women’s cardiovascular health. For over 14 years, Dr. Thurston has been an investigator of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, one of the largest multiethnic prospective cohort studies of midlife women’s health. Dr. Thurston is active clinically, treating midlife women’s behavioral health in a novel partnership that integrates behavioral healthcare into medical care. Dr. Thurston is a recipient of the most prestigious award for menopause research internationally, the Henry Burger Award from the International Menopause Society, and is incoming President of the North American Menopause Society. Dr. Thurston is an elected fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.



Panelists

Susan Mason, PhD, MPH

University of Minnesota Assistant Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health

Shannon Golden, PhD

Research Associate, the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT)

Patricia A Frazier, PhD

University of Minnesota, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts

Access to the 2019 Conference Abstract Submissions

2019 Topic Aims:

  • Explore implications of trauma and gender violence on women's physical and mental health

  • Promote solutions-based research agendas aimed at improving women's health

  • Build understanding of trauma and gender violence as multi-faceted issues that have implications for women's health