Women’s Health Focus of UA’s Rural Health Conference

Women’s Health Focus of UA’s Rural Health Conference

The 2017 Rural Health Conference will be March 30-31.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Women’s health is the focus of the 18th annual Rural Health Conference hosted by The University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences and its Institute for Rural Health Research.

“Empowering Women in Health: Bridging the Gap between Clinical and Community,” will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, March 30, and Friday, March 31, at the Bryant Conference Center on UA’s campus.

Keynote speakers include Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, professor of medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at The University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Dr. Marji Gold, a faculty member in the department of family and social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Marrazzo is internationally recognized for her research and education efforts in sexually transmitted infections, especially as they affect women’s health. Her conference presentation is titled “Optimizing Infectious Disease Care for Women in Rural Settings: Current Challenges and Opportunities.”

Marrazzo conducts research on the human microbiome, specifically as it relates to female reproductive tract infections and hormonal contraception. Her other research interests include prevention of HIV infection using biomedical interventions, including microbicides. She recently led the VOICE Study, a National Institutes of Health-funded study that evaluated HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis to women at high risk for HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.

She obtained her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. She earned a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she also completed a fellowship in infectious disease.

Gold was instrumental in integrating a women’s health curriculum into the family medicine residency at Einstein, and has focused on woman-centered language as an integral component of woman-centered care. Her conference presentation is titled “Reproductive Equality.”

Gold works with medical students, residents and fellows at Einstein and also maintains a primary care practice at a community health center in the Bronx, where she supervises medical students and residents. Gold received her medical degree from New York University College of Medicine and completed a family medicine residency at Einstein.

Breakout sessions on issues related to the conference topic will also be offered, including Lactation Support and Resources; Long-acting Reversible Contraceptives; Understanding the Link between Food Insecurity and Obesity among African-American Women; Sexual Health among Latinas in Alabama; and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault on Women.

The annual Rural Health Conference is attended by health-care providers, researchers, community leaders, government officials and policymakers. The registration fee for the conference is $150 a person and $35 for students and includes breakfast and lunch on both days. Continuing education will be provided for some health care professionals.

For more information and to register online, visit the conference website at http://rhc.ua.edu or call 205/348-9640.

Contact

Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu

Source

Leslie Zganjar, College of Community Health Sciences, director of communications, 205/348-3079 or lzganjar@cchs.ua.edu