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Center for Research in Women's Health Heersink School of Medicine

Community Engagement

Our Mission

The mission of the Center for Women’s Reproductive Health is to improve the health of women across the lifespan and the health of their offspring, locally and globally, through promotion of interdisciplinary research; training future leaders in women’s health research; and advocating for translation of women’s health discoveries into policies that increase access to quality health care for all population, particularly the underserved.  Community engagement is paramount to fulfilling this mission.  Community engaged activities have included the following:

  • Members of the CRWH COVID-19 in Pregnancy Working Group, including Dr. Akila Subramaniam and Dr. Jodie Dionne, led seminal studies on COVID-19 in pregnancy and provided extensive community service via diverse media to educate providers and the public about COVID-19 in pregnancy.
  • The center engaged rural minority community members in design and implementation of a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) study on the treatment of urgency urinary incontinence.
  • Since 2021, CRWH staff (via 24/7 Labor and Delivery coverage) has collaborated with LifeSouth to collect cord blood (>800 units/year) to be donated for transplant and novel therapies for a host of conditions.
  • CRWH awards UAB investigators and trainees with research pilot funds which are intended to support high quality and impactful women’s health research that generates preliminary data for future NIH/Federal grant applications.
  • CRWH seminars feature UAB and guest speakers sharing the latest discoveries and innovations in women's health research and are open to all who are interested in women's health including health care workers in the community. https://www.uab.edu/medicine/crwh/news-events/seminars
  • In partnership with the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), CRWH implemented a panel to educate the public about maternal mortality.  The panel involved multidisciplinary faculty of the CRWH Maternal Mortality Working Group.

Advocacy

  • CRWH-led projects have yielded >130 abstracts at national meetings and >50 publications including the Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy (CHAP) trial, and the center advocated and collaborated with national organizations to change pregnancy hypertension guidelines that impact practice.
  • CRWH worked with the UAB Institute of Human Rights on humanitarian relief and peace advocacy in Cameroon, the home of CRWH global grants.
  • The CRWH $20M American Heart-funded EQUATE Network includes local community advisory boards and a community engagement core of UAB and national experts to advise on optimal community engagement with outreach to historically black colleges and universities.

Get Involved

Collaborative partnerships are key to our success.  Over the past 4 years, the CRWH University-wide Research Center (UWIRC) has enjoined investigators across 11 UAB schools/entities and 26 departments with the common goal to improve women’s health.  Collaborations involve 3 thematic areas (Maternal and Child, Gynecologic Health and Global Health) and extend to >65 academic centers and 7 countries.  CRWH also collaborates with other UWIRCs and Institutes including the CCTS, COERE, Minority Health, Hypertension Research, NORC, Sparkman, and Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health and has partnerships with Children’s of Alabama, Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, and Universities of Alabama in Huntsville and South Alabama.

Your involvement can have a significant impact.  Whether you are looking to participate in CRWH research or training programs, have a passion to advocate for women’s health, or would like to partner through giving, we invite you to join us in our mission to improve women’s health.  For more information on how you can get involved, please contact us crwh@uab.edu