During the International Women's Forum conference in Barcelona, JHF helped to organize the April 11 breakfast meeting for IWF leaders who share an interest in health and health care. The first formal program of IWF's Women in Health Care Special Interest Group — initiated by JHF President Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, and WHAMglobal Chair Debra Caplan, MPA, last year — attracted a global potpourri of 130 women from IWF.
The International Women's Forum is an invitation-only organization of more than 7,000 women from 33 nations on six continents. Dr. Feinstein was a founding member of its Pittsburgh chapter. Ms. Caplan, who is also Vice Chair of JHF's Board of Trustees, traveled to Barcelona for the conference; she is the incoming president of IWF's Pittsburgh chapter.
The IWF Women in Health Care Special Interest Group makes a global network of women's health activists a reality. "We want to create a space where groups with mutual interests can form, so when we come to these conferences and when we return, we can connect to each other," said Dr. Feinstein.
The presentation at the breakfast program focused on women's singular periods of transition across the life cycle: Puberty, Maternity, Menopause, and Seniority. Dr. Feinstein presented the Maternity part of the program, building on WHAMglobal's Maternity Care Study Tour of Australia in June 2018. "As we saw throughout the tour, moms and families are supported with a physical and mental health safety net throughout their pregnancy and well into the child's development," she said. Those insights have guided WHAMglobal's policy and advocacy work this year.
WHAMglobal Board Member J. Usha Raj, MD, the Anjuli S. Nayak Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, delivered remarks on Puberty. Dolores Sukhdeo, president of South Florida PBS — creator of the Health Channel: All Health All the Time — spoke on Menopause. Dorthy Miller Shore, president, and CEO of the media group Prime Women: Redefining the Over 50 Woman spoke about Seniority.