As the second annual ‘Mike’ Wilson Lecture approaches on October 23, 2026, CAS News looks back at the inaugural event in the series. Hosted each fall by the Department of Sociology, the lecture is made possible through a generous gift from its namesake.
As the second annual ‘Mike’ Wilson Lecture approaches on October 23, 2026, CAS News looks back at the inaugural event in the series. Hosted each fall by the Department of Sociology, the lecture is made possible through a generous gift from its namesake.
It was the type of gathering that former University of Alabama at Birmingham sociology professor Dr. Michele ‘Mike’ Wilson would have relished. A deep discussion about issues facing women’s health care and well-being, and ways to improve them.
So it was appropriate that this meeting last October carried Wilson’s name, as the inaugural ‘Mike’ Wilson Lecture was held at the UAB National Alumni Society House. The event was made possible thanks in large part to an estate gift that Wilson left the UAB Department of Sociology following her passing in 2021.
“Though Mike was humble and never sought recognition, we believe she would have taken great joy in this gathering,” UAB sociology professor Patricia Drentea, Ph.D., M.A., told the room. “She would have been seated in the front row, engaging deeply with the speaker, and continuing the conversation later with colleagues and students.”
The speaker was Chloe E. Bird, PhD, FAAAS, FAAHB, director of the Center for Health Equity Research at Tufts Medical Center, and the Sara Murray Jordan Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School in Boston. Bird has served as senior advisor in the National Institutes of Health’s Office for Research on Women’s Health, and was editor-in-chief of the Women’s Health Issues medical journal.
“Dr. Bird was invited because her work prioritizes an understanding of how to improve access to health care and improve health outcomes, especially for women,” former UAB College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kecia M. Thomas, Ph.D., said. “This aligns with Mike Wilson’s legacy, making Dr. Bird the perfect person to provide this lecture in our inaugural year.”
During her half-hour presentation, Bird provided a brief history of how research for women’s health has evolved over the decades, followed by an analysis of the long-term financial benefits in investing funds into these types of studies.
Bird noted that for much of the 20th century, most medical research either grouped men and women together or focused more heavily on men, since men statistically die younger than women. Bird said that attitude began to change in the 1990s, as some researchers concluded “that sex as a biological variable is critical as a social determinant of health.”
“The ramifications go very far beyond the way we had thought about sex differences,” Bird said. “It showed that there are genetic and physiologic differences … and a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t help everyone. Yet that’s the way we had approached doing medicine, by finding those average answers.
“It’s not surprising that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in underwear. Why would we expect that it would work in health care?”
Despite recent advancements in women’s health research, Bird said that a study released in 2024 found that less than 10 percent of NIH funding went toward research focused solely on women’s health.
“They did studies that included women, and women benefited from some of them,” Bird said. “But often, the answers didn’t work for women.”
See more information about the upcoming 2026 ‘Mike’ Wilson Lecture.