Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Scholar Program
Yale BIRCWH Scholar Program on Women's Health and Addictive Behaviors
The Yale BIRCWH Scholar Program provides interdisciplinary research skill development through mentoring, coaching and team science experience for junior faculty interested in a research career focused on women’s health and addictive behaviors. Its goal is to develop independent investigators with the skills necessary to make enduring contributions to the prevention and treatment of addictive behaviors which result in direct practical benefit for women and their families.
The program is funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health.
Carolyn M. Mazure, Ph.D., Principal Investigator - Director, Women’s Health Research at Yale, Professor of Psychiatry & Psychology, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
Samuel A. Ball, Ph.D., Research Director – Professor of Psychiatry
Jacob K. Tebes, Ph.D., Team Science Advisor – Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Deputy Director of The Consultation Center
Each junior faculty scholar has the opportunity to work intensively with at least two of 25 mentors who all have extensive independent research programs.
BIRCWH Scholars Selected in 2011:
Elise DeVito, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Research Area: Impact of sex and gender on the risk and maintenance of addictive disorders
Mentor: Kathleen M. Carroll, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Psychosocial Research, Division of Addictions; Scientific Director, Psychotherapy Development Center for Drug Abuse
Megan Smith, M.P.H., Dr.PH., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Child Study, and Lecturer in the School of Public Health.
Research Area: Substance abuse and the roles of social context and environment in mental illness in pregnant, postpartum and parenting women
Mentor: Linda C. Mayes, M.D., Professor in the Child Study Center, of Epidemiology, Pediatrics and of Psychology
Azure Thompson, Dr.PH. and M.P.H., Associate Research Scientist
Research Area: Conceptualizing programs aimed at prevention of substance abuse among adolescent girls and young women
Mentor: Jacob K. Tebes, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor in the Child Study Center, and of Epidemiology
Tomoko Udo, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Research Area: Development of a human laboratory model for smoking relapse to better understand gender differences in smoking cessation
Mentor: Sherry McKee, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory
To see the July 2010 Press Release regarding the BIRCWH program, please click here
