Women’s Health Multidisciplinary Consortium
The Women’s Health Multidisciplinary Consortium (WHMC) is an organization at UNC dedicated to creating a trainee-focused, unified community of clinicians and researchers with a vested interest in advancing women’s health research and care. Founded in 2020, we are composed of six core committees each focused on cultivating this community across UNC’s campus by developing community partnerships, hosting educational seminars, and developing longitudinal graduate and medical student training programs.
Mission Statement
To create a trainee-focused, unified community of faculty, clinicians, and researchers with a vested interest in women’s health research and sex-specific pathologies to advance women’s health research and care.
WHMC Initiatives
The WHMC Core Committee is made up of trainees (graduate, medical, post-doc, undergraduates, etc) who work on teams to co-lead the main WHMC initiatives:
- Hot Topic Seminar Series: The WHMC Hot Topic Seminars are a monthly, 1-hour program curated by the WHMC Hot Topic Committee with an audience of basic science and clinical faculty, clinical and research fellows, graduate and medical students, postdoctoral and resident trainees, and undergraduates.
- Community Engagement: The WHMC Community Engagement arm organizes joint events with other organizations and groups on campus to involve students in workshops, informational sessions, and community service opportunities. This committee curates a monthly Women’s Health Newsletter, which includes interviews with WHMC members and faculty, community bulletin board for upcoming events, recent publications, research positions, funding opportunities, and more.
- Scholarly Concentration Program (for medical students): The Women’s Health Scholarly Concentration Program (WH-SCP) was launched in Fall 2024 as a training program for UNC medical students. An inaugural cohort of 12 medical students were selected from an applicant pool of first-year and second-year medical student applicants. The WH-SCP is led by faculty co-directors Drs. Marcella Willis-Gray and Asha Talati, and WHMC student leaders.
- Graduate Trainee Program (for graduate students): The Graduate Trainee Program team led the development and creation of the new Graduate Certificate Program in Women’s Health Research (WHR). This certificate program will provide graduate trainees with a formal program of courses and seminars to develop specialized research training in the field of women’s health. Trainees of this certificate will receive multidisciplinary education and mentorship that will provide them the skills to pursue advanced research questions within the field of women’s health and sex-associated pathologies.
- Journal Club: The Journal Club Trainee Cohort brings together trainees and faculty to engage in critical discussions centered around cutting-edge research in women’s health and sex-associated pathologies. Each session features an invited expert researcher or clinician who presents over one of their recent publications, offering insights into their scientific approach, and fostering in-depth dialogue. This initiative promotes scholarly exchange, builds research literacy, and strengthens our interdisciplinary community’s understanding of the evolving landscape in women’s health research.
- Fundraising: The fundraising team is tasked with developing initiatives to raise funds for our community partners and for future WHMC-led event series, speakers or future conferences.