For Release: November 4, 2011
Contact:
David Corriveau 603-653-1978 david.a.corriveau@hitchcock.org
Great Issues in Medicine and Global Health Symposium to focus on women's and girls' health worldwide
US Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA
Lebanon, NH—The surgeon general of the United States, the chief medical officer of the federal Indian Health Service, the president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and an Olympic- and World Cup-champion soccer player will join forces with a wide range of clinicians and researchers to discuss strategies for improving the well-being of women and girls worldwide during Dartmouth-Hitchcock's eighth annual Great Issues in Medicine and Global Health symposium, "Investing in Women and Girls."
The symposium will take place November 16-18 in locations at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and at Dartmouth College, under the co-direction of John Butterly, MD, DHMC's executive vice president for medical affairs, and Mary Turco, EdD, director of the DHMC Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences.
"Investing in women and girls is one of the eight major goals of the Millennium Development project [of the United Nations], and is fundamental to the attainment of all of its goals," Butterly says. "We are exceptionally proud to have been able to attract such vital, extraordinary leaders from diverse aspects of our society to help us shine a light on this critical issue."
U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, will give the keynote address, "Making a Difference," on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Cook Auditorium at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Dr. Benjamin's address is open to the public, as are three "grand rounds" lectures from women's health leaders Thursday and Friday:
- "Pushing at the Margins: Women, Vulnerability and Resilience in Marginalized Communities Across the World," by Sarah Degnan Kambou, PhD, MPH, president of the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, DC, at 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 17, in Auditorium E at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon,
- "When Women and Girls Are Healthy, a Nation is Healthy" by Marilyn S. Sommers, PhD, RN, FAAN, director of the Center for Global Women's Health and Health Equity Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, at 3:40 p.m. Thursday, also in DHMC Auditorium E.
- "Women and Health: Addressing Current Needs and Setting the Future Agenda," by Ana Langer, MD, coordinator of the Special Initiative in Women and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 and also in DHMC Auditorium E.
A number of events for Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students are also part of the symposium. Olympic women's soccer gold medalist Kristine Lilly will join 2010 Dartmouth graduate Myra Sack in a presentation for high school students and teachers, "Glass Slippers and Soccer Cleats," Thursday, Nov. 17 at 9:30 a.m. Area students and teachers should call (603) 653-1566 to reserve seats at Alumni Hall.
On November 17, the Indian Health Service's Susan Karol, MD, a 1979 Dartmouth graduate, will describe the current state of healthcare in Indian country to students of Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and to Dartmouth undergraduates in classes on Native American studies, sociology, and government. Meanwhile, WNBA President Laurel Richie, a 1981 Dartmouth graduate, will speak to medical and business school students at the Tuck School of Business.
Crystal Crawford, a 1987 graduate of Dartmouth and CEO of the California Black Women's Health Project, will speak with students at the College Health Service and later join Laurel Richie and Susan Karol for remarks at a dinner in Alumni Hall hosted by the undergraduate women's group, Link Up.
For more information about the symposium, including speaker biographies, visit www.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/great-issues-symposium.
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