Please join Let's Talk Menopause, in partnership with Black Health Matters, for our next Menopause Talk: The Truth About Race, Ethnicity and Menopause Care on Thursday, October 20 at 1pm EST.
Did you know Black and Latina women enter menopause earlier and have longer lasting, more intense symptoms? Your doctors may not know this either. Different demographic groups experience menopause differently, and those who are marginalized have unequal access to treatments and poorer health outcomes.
What will it take to get doctors, researchers, the media (and, indeed, all of us) to take seriously the menopause and mid-life health needs of women who, for far too long, have been left out of the conversation? To find out, join us for our next Menopause Talk. Dr. Sharon Malone, Chief Medical Officer of Alloy will host an expert panel, including Omisade Burney-Scott of the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause, Carrie Karvonen-Gutierrez, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, M.D., FACOG, a tenured professor, board certified reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist.
This Menopause Talk is for EVERYONE who cares about all women getting the menopause and mid-life health care they need to lead healthy and long lives.
Dr. Sharon Malone is the Medical Director of Alloy, the new tele-health platform for women focused on perimenopause and menopause. Alloy health, along with Dr. Malone, seeks to democratize the experience of menopause and ensure that women have access to science-based information and clinically proven treatment options. Prior to assuming her position at Alloy, Dr. Malone served women across Washington DC in her almost 30 years as a practicing Ob/Gyn. She remains one of the nation’s leading obstetrician / gynecologists with a focus on the specific health challenges associated with menopause. Dr. Malone graduated from Harvard and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her residency at The George Washington University.
Dr. Malone’s upbringing shapes her approach to educating and empowering women. Born at home (the two nearby hospitals didn’t adequately serve Black women in childbirth), and the youngest of 8 children, she was raised in Mobile, Alabama. Her sister, Vivian Malone, integrated the University of Alabama in 1963. Her enrollment prompted Governor George Wallace’s infamous Stand in the Schoolhouse Door. Then, Dr. Malone helped integrate the white Catholic school across the street from her house. Raised by siblings after the death of her mother, Sharon Malone’s upbringing included changing schools four times in four years in three different states. Dr. Malone found strength and resilience in community, in her own work ethic and in her strong belief that there are no accidents in the universe.
Omisade is a Black southern 7th generation native North Carolinian feminist, social justice advocate and storyteller. Omisade has spent the better part of the past 25 years of her life focused on the liberation of marginalized people, beginning with her own community through advocacy work, philanthropy, community organizing and culture work. She is a founding tribe member of SpiritHouse and previously served as a board member of The Beautiful Project, Village of Wisdom, Working Films and stone circles.
Omisade is the creator/curator of The Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause, a multimedia project engaged in culture and narrative shift work through the centering and curation of stories from Black women, women identified and gender expansive people. This project is a direct result of Omisade finding herself and her peers living at the intersection of social justice movement work, creative healer identities and aging.
Omisade is a native of New Bern, North Carolina and a 1989 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. She is the proud mom of two sons, Che and Taj and resides in Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Karvonen-Gutierrez is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Karvonen-Gutierrez’s research focuses on critical periods of risk for adverse health outcomes in women. Specifically, she evaluates the impact of chronological aging, reproductive aging and obesity and their intersections, on the development and progression of chronic disease through the creation of a metabolically-dysfunctional and pro-inflammatory environment. To address her research agenda, Dr. Karvonen-Gutierrez uses both epidemiologic and clinical research designs leveraging her leadership in ongoing cohort studies as well as new data collection efforts.
Dr. Karvonen-Gutierrez received her PhD in Epidemiologic Science and MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. She is a National Institute of Aging Butler Williams Scholar and is on the Editorial Board at the Midlife Women’s Health journal. She is the Principal Investigator of several ongoing prospective studies: the Michigan site of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study and the PROTECT-Moms Study.
Gloria Richard-Davis, M.D., FACOG, is a tenured professor, board certified reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist and serves as division director for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), which she joined in 2013. Dr. Richard-Davis is also executive director for the UAMS Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as well as medical director for the UAMS Physician Assistants program. Her passionate holistic approach to patient care propelled her to foster the development of UAMS Culinary Medicine Program, where she serves as the lead instructor. She previously served as professor and chair of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Meharry Medical College from January 2007-2012. From 2000-2007, she was section head of Reproductive Health Services for the Ochsner Clinic Foundation and the medical director of the Fertility Center at Ochsner in New Orleans.
Richard-Davis has more than 25 years of experience in women’s health and reproductive endocrinology and in general obstetrics and gynecology. Her areas of research and clinical interest include menopausal health, polycystic ovarian syndrome, female sexual dysfunction, uterine fibroids, ovulation induction, reproductive disruptors, and assisted reproductive technologies.She has served in leadership positions in multiple medical professional societies, including the North American Menopause Society. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and a book on infertility entitled “Planning Parenthood: Strategies for Success in Fertility Assistance, Adoption, and Surrogacy.” She is also the recipient of many awards and grants for her research and scholarly activities.
