Washington, DC (Jan. 10, 2025) — Women's Health Issues welcomes to its editorial board two new members with expertise in multiple aspects of women's health: Asha Hassan, PhD, MPH, of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and Sebastian Z. Ramos, MD, of the Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine. Women’s Health Issues (WHI) is the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, which is based at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University.
Asha Hassan, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and women’s health at the University of Minnesota Medical School and is also affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Population Center. Her research interests include structural racism in healthcare; reproductive justice; feminist and critical race theory; and family planning decision-making. She has received multiple grants and the Next Generation Award from the Society of Family Planning; the Trust Community Engagement Award from Women’s Health Leadership TRUST; and the Birth Equity Scholar Fellowship Award from the National Birth Equity Collaborative, among other recognitions. The WHI commentary “Rebuilding a Reproductive Future Informed by Disability and Reproductive Justice,” of which she is the first author, recommends investments in disabled scholars and redistribution of power to achieve the autonomy at the core of both reproductive and disability justice.
Sebastian Z. Ramos, MD, is a principal investigator at the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Medical Center and an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has expertise in maternal-fetal medicine with a focus on diabetes in pregnancy, LGBTQ+ obstetric care, fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, and disparities in obstetric and neonatal outcomes. As a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar, he focuses on assessing the role systemic racism and trust in healthcare play in disparities in pregnancy outcomes. He received the 2023 Council on Resident Education in OBGYN National Faculty Award for Excellence in Resident Education as well as national awards by the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine for his research on fetal growth restriction and disparities in obstetric outcomes. The WHI commentary “Navigating Miscarriage Management Post-Dobbs: Health Risks and Ethical Dilemmas,” of which he is the senior author, describes how abortion bans impede miscarriage care and suggests responses at the individual, institutional, local, and national levels.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Hassan and Dr. Ramos join the editorial board of Women’s Health Issues,” said Karen McDonnell, Editor-in-Chief of the journal and Associate Professor of Prevention and Community Health at Milken Institute SPH. “At a time when women’s health and reproductive autonomy face numerous threats, we welcome our new board members’ commitment to understanding the experiences of those most affected and working to build evidence to advance high-quality, respectful care.”