Inaugural Hansel Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Health: “Multipurpose Prevention Technologies: Innovating Solutions for Overlapping Women’s Reproductive Health Health Challenges”

Please join us for the Inaugural Hansel Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Health featuring visiting speaker Dr. Lisa Haddad, the Medical Director for the Center for Biomedical Research at The Population Council and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics in the Division of Family Planning at Emory University School of Medicine.

In her work at the Population Council, Dr. Haddad leads clinical development efforts to advance the Center’s reproductive health product portfolio. Dr. Haddad is an international leader in women’s health, particularly as it pertains to the reproductive immune system and novel contraceptive strategies. She is currently Principal Investigator on an NIH P50 center award to design and test a multi-purpose prevention technology, providing protection against sexually transmitted infections and promoting a healthy vaginal microbiome, in addition to preventing pregnancy. Thank you to Prof. Alex Travis for serving as the primary host and to the Hansel Committee (Prof. Paula Cohen, committee chair; Prof. Alex Travis; Prof. Alex Nikitin; Assistant Prof. Runi Das; and Dr. Xinbao Ding) for their selection of Dr. Haddad for this inaugural lecture. Special thanks to Prof. Emeritus Joanne Fortune, without whom this lectureship to honor Dr. Hansel would never have happened.

William (Bill) Hansel was a renowned reproductive physiologist at Cornell, who after 41 years on the faculty retired in 1990. He then remarkably started a new career in cancer biology in Louisiana. With the Hansel endowment fund managed by Prof. Emeritus Joanne Fortune (BMS) and matching funds from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, the Hansel Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Health was started in 2024. The goal of the lectureship is to honor the legacy of Bill Hansel’s seminal work in translational reproductive physiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, and to promote research in the critical area of women’s health on campus. The initiative is intended to be complementary to the broader goals in women’s health research spearheaded by Prof. Paula Cohen, founding director of the Cornell Center for Reproductive Sciences (CoRe).