Women make up half the US adult population and workforce while making over 80% of healthcare decisions, yet only $5B of the $42B NIH research budget is directed specifically at women’s health. 

This disparity carries over to Women’s Brain Health and Longevity where the difference in our brains and bodies has major implications for our aging, mental health, and more. For example, 70% of Alzheimer's patients are women, even accounting for age.

The world needs women as vital and healthy leaders to navigate the next decades.  As such, we view Women’s Brain Health and Longevity as a strategic and economic priority for a modern sustainable society.    

Join us for the first in a series of conversations to imagine an inclusive future for Women’s Brain Health.  The evening will include talks, lively roundtables, serious science, brain-healthy cuisine, and a breathtaking view of the city to match. Our goal with this Salon is to continue to bring ideas, talent, and funding together to accelerate innovation in the science of the brain and mind. 

When powerful women gather, change and innovation happens faster.  Our New York Women’s Brain Health and Longevity salon resulted in the cofounding of a new women’s health fund, collaborative recruitment of over a hundred study participants, multiple generous philanthropic donations, and fantastic new connections made between incredible women.

SPEAKERS:

Our speakers on the 28th are among the most brilliant scientists exploring topics related to women’s brain health, mental health, and longevity:

HOSTS:

Agenda:

5:30pm - Arrivals, Introductions, Cocktails

6:30pm - Short Talks, Q&A

7:30pm - Dinner, Roundtables

9:00pm - Rock out

Speaker Bios:

Elissa Epel, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Psychiatry at UCSF, is the Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center at UCSF. She studies the psychological, social, and behavioral pathways underlying chronic psychological stress and stress resilience that impact cellular aging. She also studies the interconnections between stress, addiction, eating, and metabolic health. Her research has been featured in venues such as TEDMED, NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, 60 minutes, National Public Radio, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.  She loves to lead retreats, and has led science and meditation retreats at Esalen, 1440, and Davos/WEF.  She co-authored "The Telomere Effect" (2017) with Elizabeth Blackburn, a NYT bestseller under the category of Science in 30 languages and the upcoming book, The Stress Prescription..

Sarina Elmariah, MD, PhD, MPH is a cellular and molecular neuroscientist and a Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. She studies how the skin’s neural network actively engages with environmental exposures and coordinates sensory, immune and behavioral responses to the world around us. She is internationally recognized as a clinical leader in her field and has been featured in Dermatology Times, O (Oprah) magazine, Shape, Women’s Health, Parents, Prevention,  Reader’s Digest, Consumer Reports Health, NOVA/PBS and Today.com. She has been recruited to UCSF to launch a Center for Clinical Excellence, Research and Innovation for neurosensory disorders of the skin, a  cross-disciplinary institute focused on the two-way dialog between the brain and the skin. 

Vivienne Ming, PhD is a theoretical neuroscientist and serial entrepreneur. Among the 12 companies she’s launched are Socos Labs, where she develops philanthropic AI projects such as the first ever system for diabetes (for her son) and predicting manic episodes, and an AI to reunite orphan refugees with extended family members. Her latest company, Dionysus Digital Health, combines a suite of natural language algorithms for understanding both key personality traits and real time fluctuations stress with unique epigenetic testing. Dionysus’s precision hormonal health platform allows targeted treatment of PMS, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, premenstrual depression, perimenopausal depression, and premature cognitive decline. Dr. Ming is featured for her research and inventions in The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Quartz Magazine, and the New York Times. She previously pursued her research in cognitive neuroprosthetics at UC Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.

ABOUT BRAINMIND:

BrainMind is a private community of top brain scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and academic institutions collaborating to accelerate impactful innovation in brain science. At this important juncture in neuroscience, the BrainMind ecosystem is combining the most talented of these groups in novel ways to collectively shepherd, support, and fund ideas that can be translated from labs into interventions that will benefit humanity. We believe that the right ecosystem can generate more progress than the status quo, by orders of magnitude.