Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

### About the Doris A. Howell Foundation: The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through research and educating women to be catalysts for improving family health in the community. The organization does so by funding scholarships to scientists researching issues affecting women’s health;   providing a forum for medical experts, scientists, doctors, researchers, and authors to convey the timely information on topics relevant to women’s health and the health of their families through its Lecture and Evening Series, and by funding research initiatives that will create women’s health awareness and advocacy in the community.     For more information about the Doris A. Howell Foundation, please visit  www.howellfoundation.org.  

2015 was a very busy -- and successful-- year!  Read about the impact the Doris A. Howell Foundation had in our community. Oh yea...  and 2016, get ready, here we come!  We kick off the year with the lecture "Understanding the genome 10,000 experiments at a time: applying genomic approaches to understand autoimmune disease in women" with Sonia Sharma, Ph.D. Why should you attend?  Did you know that:      ·         Taken together, autoimmune diseases strike women three times more than men? Some diseases have an even higher incidence in women! ·         Autoimmune diseases have been cited in the top ten leading causes of all deaths among U.S. women age 65 and younger?    ·         Autoimmune diseases represent the fourth largest cause of disability among women in the United States?  When you have a minute, read about the topic and regist...

After a fun and frantic holiday season, I am reflecting on the Foundation's accomplishments in 2015, our 20th Anniversary year, and on the goals for 2016 and the next 20 years. So many have given of their time, their talent and their treasure to make this year a success. Our Advisory Council met in the Fall and compiled a list of hot topics and exciting speakers for our luncheon series. Many of the members of the Council have served for years and we are grateful to all the participants. At the Council meeting we presented Dr. Irene Su, our newest CEI recipient, with the award for her project, "Developing a reproductive health intervention for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors." We have strengthened our alliances with other amazing organizations including Soroptimist International of La Jolla, who made the Howell Foundation possible 20 years ago, The National CHEERS Foundation and Las Damas de Fairbanks Ranch. All have contributed to making this year a succ...

Soroptimist International of La Jolla (SILJ) is an organization that is known for acting upon community needs. The concern of the group about women’s health led them to take action, especially upon the common practice of not including female subjects in the clinical trials taking place at the time and the outcome for women when facing illness.  Their mission became VERY clear:  get women’s health on the radar. The premise under which the Foundation was created in 1995 still remains:  to get students excited about a career in research.  By awarding grants to students who were involved with scientific mentors, there was a guarantee that women’s health issues would be addressed at the most basic level:  research. Soroptimist International of La Jolla (SILJ) has been supporting the  scholarship program EVERY year for the past 20 years.  “We are very proud of the men and women who have participated; very proud of our group’s involvement in helping t...

Dr. Howell couldn’t have said it better.  Addressing the audience at the Foundation’s 20th anniversary event, she told us the story about the challenges she faced when studying at McGill University; known for its extensive focus on research.  She says humbly that the technicalities of research may have been difficult at times but yet never missed a lecture.  And that is how she learned that information is the key for women's health advocacy.   “Take the research that is being done, translate it, and put it into practical use.  Please take it seriously because we have no way to go but up, no way to go but success, no way to go but needed.  It is filling that need that I hope our Foundation will constantly try to do as its mission; and so far I believe we’ve succeeded.”                                                     ...

"I am passionate about empowering women in their paths towards healthy living and doing so, through valid and credible research and resources."  Abigail D’Agostino is a medical professional with over 13 years of wide ranging experience in the healthcare industry and has demonstrated proven success with increasing levels of professional responsibility. Ms. D’Agostino obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Registered Nurse license and Public Health Nursing certificate in 2002 and sought medical-surgical and critical care clinical experience for several years where she won an award for clinical excellence and obtained her critical care certification.  Ms. D’Agostino further advanced her education and earned her Master’s in Business Administration and then became certified in Plant-Based Nutrition. Ms. D’Agostino is the Director of Patient Care Services for LightBridge Hospice & Palliative Care and is an Associate Consultant with Weatherbee Resources, In...

It was at the end of 2012 when the Howell Foundation awarded its first Community Engagement Award, "For our Health”.  The aim of the study was to pilot test the impact of a physical activity intervention on the physical activity practices of pregnant Latinas. Considering the important influence of family and friends in Latino culture, a social support approach was utilized to develop an intervention that targeted individual, social, and cultural influences on physical activity.  Since the Howell Foundation Community Engagement Initiative was launched in 2012, a sub-committee led by Camille Nebeker (Foundation Board Member and member of the UC San Diego Family and Preventive Medicine faculty) has developed and tested procedures for the CEI grant application and review process.  The application is modeled after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mechanism to initiate collection of preliminary data necessary for most large grant proposals. Likewise, the appli...