Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH)
NIEHS Program Empowers Women, Improves Health
May 17, 2022
Interviewee: Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D.
In this episode we’ll hear from Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D., who directs the Women’s Health Awareness program at NIEHS. She discusses women’s health disparities and why it’s important to include women – especially those from understudied, underrepresented, and underreported groups – in biomedical research. Packenham also talks about the program’s community engagement efforts, including the Women’s Health Awareness Conference, an annual event that brings women together to take control of their health and address environmental health challenges in their communities.
NIEHS Program Empowers Women, Improves Health
Women often take on the role of the family caregiver – looking after their family and friends to make sure they stay safe and healthy. But it’s also important that women take care of their own health and wellbeing by maintaining healthy behaviors, managing stress, and seeking out services to prevent poor health.
The NIEHS Women’s Health Awareness (WHA) program empowers women to take greater responsibility for their health by providing them information about how environmental factors play a role in health and disease. With a focus on prevention, WHA connects women with resources and free health care services that can help them prevent and reduce poor health.
In this episode we’ll hear from Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D., who directs the WHA program at NIEHS. She discusses women’s health disparities and why it’s important to include women – especially those from understudied, underrepresented, and underreported groups – in biomedical research. Packenham also talks about the program’s community engagement efforts, including the Women’s Health Awareness Conference, an annual event that brings women together to take control of their health and address health challenges in their communities.
Interviewee:
Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D., directs the Office of Human Research and Community Engagement and Women’s Health Awareness Program at NIEHS. Her areas of interest include translational community-based research, environmental public health, health disparities, human subject’s protections, and disaster-related health research.
Packenham has a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine and she completed her postdoctoral training within the NIH Intramural Program in the area of carcinogenesis.
Resources:
- Visit the NIEHS Women’s Health Awareness webpage to learn more about the program and watch past webinars and the WHA Strive to Thrive video series.
- Learn more about women’s health and the environment.
- Check out this factsheet on U3 – understudied, underrepresented, and underreported – populations of women from the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.
- Learn how to take care of yourself while taking care of others at the Caregiver Stress webpage from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health.