The Wayne State University School of Medicine Women in Medicine and Science Group (WIMS) welcomes all members of our community to join us for the upcoming event:

"How COVID-19 has Disproportionately Affected Women in Medicine and Science"

The purpose of the program will be to explore how COVID-19 has disproportionately adversely affected women in medicine and science as compared to their male counterparts.

Guest Speakers:

Dr. Shikha Jain is a board-certified hematology and oncology physician. She is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is the Director of Communications Strategies in Medicine and the Associate Director of Oncology Communication and Digital Innovation for the University of Illinois Cancer Center. Dr. Jain is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of the action, advocacy and amplification organization IMPACT and Founder and Chair of the Women in Medicine Summit. Dr. Jain was named one of Medscapes 25 Rising Stars in Medicine in 2020, one of Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Emerging Leaders in 2019, and was also awarded the Rising Star award by the LEAD Oncology Conference in 2019. She was selected as a ResearcHERS ambassador by the American Cancer Society, and was honored by 500 Women in Medicine.  She has been appointed as the 2021 Lead of the American Society for Clinical Oncology Women's Networking Center taskforce, is a member of the Diversity and Inclusion taskforce, and appointed to the Illinois State Medical Society’s Council on Communications and Membership Advocacy as well as the COVID19 taskforce. Dr. Jain’s mentorship and sponsorship have resulted in the advancement of numerous young women and men in medicine across the country. She works tirelessly to promote the dissemination of evidence based scientific information through numerous mediums including social media and has been recognized as a thought leader by Doximity and the OpEd project. She lectures nationally on the importance of social media and communication strategies in healthcare. She is also the founder of the social media group Dual Physician Families.

Nicole C. Woitowich, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. While formally trained as a biochemist, Dr. Woitowich’s current work focuses on women’s health and the advancement of women in science and medicine. Her research explores the consideration of sex as a biological variable, the inclusion of women in the biomedical research workforce, and how those two components may be inextricably related.

In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Woitowich is actively transforming the landscape of the biomedical research enterprise through her advocacy and outreach activities. She has held a long-standing interest in science policy and in 2016 was awarded the Presidential Management Fellowship. She remains politically active and advocates on behalf of women’s health research. In 2018, she helped draft Congressional legislation which recognizes January 25^th as Women's Health Reserach Day.