As the WHRY Advisory Council looked ahead to 2024 and to Dr. Carolyn Mazure’s retirement two things became clear. First, given her impact on the ways we define, research, diagnose, and treat women’s health, we all owe Carolyn a tremendous debt of gratitude. She has brought women’s health to the forefront in science such that each of us – mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends – will benefit from research making our lives longer, safer, and better. Second, what she has accomplished merits an endowed fund in her name that carries forward the support for further work on advancing women’s health. To us, this seems the most fitting way to thank her.
As Marc Potenza, PhD, MD, the Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry and the director of the Women and Addictive Disorders Research Core, noted: “Women’s Health Research at Yale has been a pioneering program for the last quarter of a century. Before understanding how sex and gender relate to health and well-being became a significant focus of many major institutions, Dr. Carolyn Mazure had recognized the need to research these topics and translate data into practical benefit. Her visionary program has made substantial contributions to the health of women and girls across the globe.”
Along with her emphasis on advancing research, Carolyn has identified education as one of the next frontiers in women’s health. Here, education is defined broadly and includes offering an array of learning experiences about research on the health of women and the rapidly growing information on the influence of biological sex and the social construct of gender on health. Such learning experiences would include 1) training the next generation of physicians and biomedical researchers about women’s health so that health care providers can implement these findings and researchers can continue broadening our knowledge base; 2) offering fellowships and mentorship programs for undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students to learn what is known about women’s health and what needs to be studied; 3) sharing information with the local and regional communities and providing educational experiences for national and international public and professional audiences; and, finally, 4) a comprehensive review of the medical school’s curriculum, with an eye to establishing language, using case studies, and reorienting perspectives in ways that embed the importance of sex and gender differences in every aspect of medical education. Education – in this comprehensive sense – will be the purpose of the endowed fund. Establishing the fund will have the effect of institutionalizing this necessary initiative.
Practically, what this all adds up to is an ambitious but not impossible goal for WHRY over the next year. If we succeed in raising at least $1 million in new endowment, WHRY will become eligible for additional contributions from the Medical School; a double win for WHRY, a way to honor Carolyn, and the establishment of this significant expansion of WHRY’s purpose and impact. As we write, thanks to two significant capital gifts, we are already nearly halfway to meeting our goal and are hoping WHRY’s supporters will consider thanking and honoring Carolyn with a gift to the Carolyn M. Mazure Educational Fund to Promote the Health of Women.
To support the Carolyn M. Mazure Educational Fund to Promote the Health of Women click here. Please be sure to designate your gift to the Carolyn M. Mazure Educational Fund.