Bridging Generations: Women’s Health, Wellbeing, and Equity

Bridging Generations: Women’s Health, Wellbeing, and Equity is an interdisciplinary conference bringing together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, community leaders, and people with lived experience to explore the evolving landscape of women’s health across generations.

We will have a series of research talks discussing how women’s health around and during pregnancy impacts on the long-term health of their offspring, as well as the mother’s own future health, and why pregnancy is a unique window of opportunity to improve the health of two generations at once. This event will focus on building new networks between people from a range of disciplines working in the fields of women’s health, pregnancy and inter-generational programming around the Cambridge region. 
 
Through dialogue, collaboration, and innovation, the conference will examine key challenges and opportunities in health equity, mental and physical wellbeing, reproductive and community health, and systems change, with the aim of building more inclusive, compassionate, and equitable futures for women and girls locally and globally.

Organised by the theme leads for 'Health and wellbeing across generations', Dr Laura Dearden (IMS-MRL) and Dr Shobhana Nagraj (PHPC)

Conference Programme

09:10–09:45 Registration, coffee, “one ask / one offer” cards

09:45–10:00 Welcome  Dr Laura Dearden & Dr Shobhana Nagraj

10:00–10:45 Opening keynote - Prof Krina Zondervan

10:45–11:35 Session 1: The science of women’s health and impact across generations

11:35–12:00 Coffee

12:00–12:15 Community engagement in women’s health - Beth Elliott (10 min + 5 Q&A)

12:15–13:00 Panel 1: Whose voices shape the science?

13:00–13:50 Lunch

13:50–14:05 In conversation: women’s health at the margins - Dr Hanan Abukmail & Dr Brenda Kelly

14:05–14:50 Session 2: Shaping women’s health - policy, research and historical perspectives

14:50–15:35 Panel 2: From evidence to equity in women’s health

15:35–15:40 Introducing Final Keynote

15:40–16:20 Closing keynote - Dr Tori Ford 

16:20–16:30 Closing remarks and next steps

16:30–17:00 Self-guided art tour, networking, refreshments

Speakers & Panellists:

Session 1: The science of women’s health and impact across generations (10:45–11:35)

Chair: Laura Dearden 

1. Dr Grace Amedor (University of Cambridge)
2. Prof Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri (University of Cambridge)
3. Dr Winok Lapidaire (University of Oxford)
4. Dr Cara Ruggiero (Aston University)

Focus. The biological case for intergenerational impacts during pregnancy 

Community engagement in women’s health (12:00–12:15)

Beth Elliott, Community Engagement Coordinator, University of Cambridge · 

Panel 1: Whose voices shape the science? (12:15–13:00)

Chair: Beth Elliott 

• Prof Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri
• Dr Cara Ruggiero
• Dr Winok Lapidaire
• Dr Brenda Kelly (Consultant Obstetrician, Oxford University Hospitals)

In conversation: women’s health at the margins (13:50–14:05)

Shobhana Nagraj in conversation with Dr Hanan Abukmail & Dr Brenda Kelly

Focus. Global health, women in conflict settings, experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee women.

Session 2: Shaping women’s health - policy, research and historical perspectives (14:05–14:50)

Chair: Shobhana Nagraj

5. Prof Bassel Al Wattar (Anglia Ruskin University)
6. Dr Sanhita Chakrabarti (Central East ICB)
7. Prof Romola Davenport (University of Cambridge)

Panel 2: From evidence to equity (14:50–15:35)

Chair: Shobhana Nagraj 

• Prof Bassel Wattar
• Dr Sanhita Chakrabarti
• Prof Romola Davenport
• Dr Madeleine Lameris ( School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge)

Closing keynote (15:40–16:20) Dr Tori Ford, University of Oxford