UNC-Chapel Hill has been announced as the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) award. Created by the Office of Research on Women’s Health in partnership with NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, BIRCWH is a mentored career-development program designed to connect junior faculty to senior faculty with shared interests in women’s health and sex differences research.
The UNC BIRCWH Program will have a multiple principal investigator leadership team with complementary backgrounds serving as Program/Research Directors:
- Gaurav Dave, MBBS, DrPH, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Co-Director for the Center for Thriving Communities, and Director of Abacus Evaluation. He has more than 20 years of experience in community-engaged research, rural healthcare, and chronic disease management.
- Lisa Rahangdale, MD, MPH, is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean for Admissions for the School of Medicine, whose research focuses on HIV in women and HPV/cervical cancer prevention.
- Michelle Meyer, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Vice Chair of Research in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Meyer is a UNC BIRCWH alumna and a cardiovascular epidemiologist with three primary research interests: non-invasive measures of vascular disease, women’s health, and pain management.
Keisha Gibson, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology, and Senior Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics, will serve as Recruitment Officer.
The Center for Women’s Health Research within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will administer the UNC BIRCWH program.
Mission
From birth through childhood and adolescence into reproductive age and beyond, women encounter barriers affecting their opportunities, outcomes, and quality of life with underrepresented populations experiencing significant disparities in their health outcomes.
The mission of the UNC BIRCWH Program is to mentor and train early-career investigators to become independent interdisciplinary translational science researchers who study high priority areas in women’s health, explore sex influences on health and disease, and incorporate research strategies to promote health equity across the lifespan. Scholars will have great potential for an outsized impact on the science of women’s health research and improving the lives of women worldwide.
History
UNC-Chapel Hill was one of the first institutions to receive a BIRCWH award in 2000 and maintained an active program through 2019. During that time, the program graduated 38 scholars who went on to garner more than $1.5 billion in research funding. The new UNC BIRCWH program will build on previous foundational successes by leveraging the University’s extensive institutional resources and collaborative culture.
Funding
The BIRCWH Program is a K12 Institutional Career Development Program funded through the NIH Office of the Director.