New Haven, Conn. – Carolyn M. Mazure, PhD, has been named to a new endowed professorship that provides permanent leadership for Women’s Health Research at Yale, the University’s interdisciplinary research center focused on women’s health and gender differences.
Mazure, who founded Women’s Health Research at Yale in 1998 and has been Director from the start, is the inaugural Norma Weinberg Spungen and Joan Lebson Bildner Professor of Women’s Health Research at Yale.
The professorship is endowed by a generous leadership gift from Elisa Spungen Bildner, Yale ’75, and Robert Bildner, Yale ’72, which complements gifts from other donors and a foundation that chose to remain anonymous. The professorship is named in honor of Spungen Bildner’s mother and in memory of Bildner’s mother.
“This honor means a great deal to me personally, and provides institutional recognition of the need for and value of research on women’s health and gender differences,” Mazure said. “I thank the donors for endowing this professorship, ensuring that Yale will always pursue this vitally important work.”
Mazure is Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Yale School of Medicine. As WHRY Director, she has steered the research center through steady growth into a national model, widely known for initiating and supporting investigations on women’s health and gender differences that consistently emphasize translation of discoveries into practical healthcare advancements. The center’s other key missions are training new women’s health investigators, facilitating collaborations among scientists and institutions, and sharing its health findings with the community through outreach.
The announcement of the endowed professorship caps a month of dramatic growth for Women’s Health Research at Yale. In September, the Center announced that a Yale college ’83 couple, Wendy and Thomas Naratil, gave $1 million to endow a new named “Pioneer” research award for investigations that are either highly inventive or close to a major breakthrough in advancing women’s health – where funding is needed to reach their aims.
Since inception in 1998, WHRY has awarded more than $4.5 million in annual pilot grants to nearly 70 investigators who have obtained more than $52 million in external grants to further their research.