"Helping women live healthier and more fulfilling lives"
A National Center of Excellence in Women's Health

IWHL Calendar of Events 2008 - 2009 

Institute Programs providing Excellence in Women's Health and Leadership

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS!
Sex and Gender Research Forum at Queen Lane Feb. 3, 2009
Abstract submission deadline is 12/12/08   

 A resource women can count on, the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership (IWHL) helps carry out Drexel University College of Medicine's commitment to making women's health a key strategic goal. Guided by director Lynn Yeakel, the Institute inspires women of all ages to take charge of their health and discover their potential. 

Drexel University College of Medicine adopted a new five-year Strategic Plan (2007-2012) that includes as one of its four strategic themes, “Excellence in Women’s Health and Leadership.”  This ensures an institutional commitment to several core programs and initiatives within the Institute. 
These include:

• Expansion of the ELAM Program to other disciplines and within the medical school
• Establishment of a new Center for Women’s Health Research
• Creation of a multi-specialty Center for Women’s Health

National searches are currently underway for leaders of these initiatives. Also in 2007, Drexel University committed funding to build a new wing on the College of Medicine’s Queen Lane campus to house the Institute and its core programs, including the Archives and Special Collections.

IWHL 
Introduction:  The Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership at Drexel University College of Medicine developed a new vision and long-term goals in the context of the College’s 2007-2012 Strategic Plan and its strategic theme priority, Excellence in Women’s Health and Leadership.

The Institute (IWHL) and its core programs in leadership, education, research, outreach/advocacy, and the Archives and Special Collections are co-located in a new wing bearing the Institute’s name on the Queen Lane campus of the medical school. IWHL is perceived as an essential component of the College of Medicine, as indispensable as the departments of Medicine, Ob/Gyn and Pediatrics, and continues to be a catalyst for collaboration in women’s health and leadership within DUCOM, across Drexel University, in the Philadelphia community, regionally and nationally.

Plans are being finalized for VISION 2020, a National Conversation about Women and Leadership, co-sponsored by IWHL and the National Constitution Center (NCC) in Philadelphia October 20-21, 2010. The Conversation will convene leaders from across the U.S. to launch a decade of dialogue leading to the centennial celebration of women’s suffrage in 2020.

The ELAM program has been institutionalized within the medical school, supporting junior and senior women faculty, and has been extended to other disciplines and graduate schools at Drexel University. The program’s international expansion has begun. Page Morahan and Rosalyn Richman remain active as ELAM/IWHL advisors and career counselors, working closely with a new director of Executive Leadership programs.

The Center for Women’s Health Research is fully operational under the leadership of a renowned researcher and is bringing national recognition to Drexel for its trailblazing agenda.

IWHL has added $2 million to its existing $5 million endowment or 20% of contributions needed to reach the total endowment goal of $15 million by 2015, enabling the core programs to achieve financial self-sufficiency. International affiliations are being developed for several of its programs.

• Eight Woman One Scholars have graduated from the College of Medicine in 2008, 2009, and May 2010, and an ongoing tracking/communications process has been established to keep IWHL updated on their activities. There are currently 12 Woman One Scholars studying medicine at Drexel.
• The Gender and Ethnic Medicine (GEM) curriculum is growing in the medical school and through Continuing Medical Education seminars.
• Conversations about Women’s Health continue to reach hundreds of women of all ages throughout the community.
• The Center for Women’s Health has developed a reputation for excellence in women’s health care and Drexel physicians are the “go to” clinicians for women in the Philadelphia region.
• The Archives and Special Collections have become an internationally recognized resource for students, scholars and researchers around the world.

History 

Named in 1996 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, one of only six such designations in the nation at the time, the Institute has set its professional sights on developing resources and programs that will bridge the gaps in women's health and leadership.

Significant notes:

• The College of Medicine has endowed an academic chair, the Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women's Health, which is held by the director of the Institute, Lynn Yeakel.
• The Institute is an academic unit within Drexel University College of Medicine.
• The Institute was established in 1993 to address the special health issues of women and to promote medical education and research for women.

Formerly headquartered in The Gatehouse, the oldest surviving building on the campus of the Woman's Medical Hospital (formerly Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital), the Institute traces its origins to Woman's Medical College, established in 1850 as the first institution in the world to grant medical degrees to women. The Institute seeks to combine the various programs on women's health, including sex and gender research, throughout the university into a coordinated, interdisciplinary effort and promote leadership development and recognition of women's leadership in medicine locally, nationally and internationally.

Proud of its heritage, aware of the historical neglect of women's health concerns, and determined to create a new momentum toward improving health care for women and preparing more women for medical leadership, the Institute counts on its legacy for lessons learned, and looks now to an era of acceleration in achieving its goals of equal participation for women in medical practice and progress.

The Institute for Women's Health and Leadership, with its roots in a century and a half of tradition, is defining its worth through a determination to make history, not just record it.

For additional information, contact:
Institute for Women's Health and Leadership
Drexel University College of Medicine
1601 Cherry Street, Suite 1050
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-255-7373; Fax 215-255-7390
iwhl@drexelmed.edu/iwhl