Hadine Joffe, MD MSc
Hadine Joffe MD MSc is the Paula A. Johnson Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Executive Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where she founded and directs of the Women’s Hormones and Aging Research Program. She is affilitated with the Division of Sleep Medicine at HMS, and the Department of Supportive Oncology and the Breast Cancer Program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Joffe received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, and her Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her psychiatry residency training at McLean Hospital and a fellowship in Reproductive Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Joffe is an experienced academic leader, clinician, and clinical reproductive neuroscientist whose research focuses on brain health in midlife women across the menopause transition. As Director of the Women’s Hormones and Aging Research Program, her research examines the mechanisms (neural, hormonal, neurosteroid, stress, autonomic), course, downstream consequences (body fat gain), and treatment of neurocognitive and psychological symptoms (depression, insomnia, thermoregulatory disturbance, cognition, fatigue) in healthy midlife women and breast cancer survivors. Dr. Joffe has been continuously funded by the NIH to study women’s midlife health for the past 25 years, including as Principal Investigator of 3 R01s and a U54 multi-project Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences grant. She has also received funding from ARPA-H and PCORI grants.
As the Director of the BWH Connors Center, Dr. Joffe oversees a comprehensive cross-institutional NIH-and philanthropically funded research program for the hospital with two thematic priorities: 1) equity in the development of novel therapeutics for diseases that affect women exclusively, predominately and differentially and which involve academic, biopharma, and regulatory partnerships, and 2) impact of stress and adversity on the health of women, including across low SES communities. She has mentored an extensive number of physicians and investigators within and beyond the field of mental health and women’s health to progress along their career paths.
Dr. Joffe’s contributions to clinical work, research, and mentoring have been recognized through the HMS William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring award, the BWH Distinguished Clinician Award, a national Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Fellowship, the Vivian Pinn Award for Outstanding Research in Women’s Health, the North American Menopause Society Thomas Clarkson Outstanding Clinical & Basic Science Research Award, and the HMS Department of Psychiatry Stuart T. Hauser MD PhD Mentorship Award.
Natalie Feldman, MD
Dr. Natalie Feldman is a Research Scientist at the Connors Center, working on research and education projects focusing on maternal mental health. Her primary research focus is on postpartum anxiety with additional work on birth trauma and mood disorders across the lifespan. Dr. Feldman is an associate psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She obtained her MD in 2018 at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital for residency training and continued here for her Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry fellowship, of which she is now the Assistant Director.
Leilah Grant, PhD
Dr. Grant is an Associate Physiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She joined BWH in 2018 after completing her PhD at Monash University in Australia. Dr. Grant’s research focuses the effects of sleep, the circadian system and light on cognitive performance, and metabolic and endocrine outcomes. With the Women’s Hormone and Aging Research Program, she is part of the team investigating the effects of sleep fragmentation and estradiol withdrawal on biomarkers of body fat gain in women.
Irene Gonsalvez, MD
Dr. Gonsalvez joined the Brigham and Women’s Psychiatry Department as Junior Faculty in 2020, also working as an Associate Researcher at WHARP since. She completed medical school from Universidad Miguel Hernandez in Spain and adult Psychiatry Residency training at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston. She moved to Boston in 2012, after she was awarded with a Clinical Research grant from “La Obra Social La Caixa” in 2012, joining the Berenson-Allen Center at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston as a Research Fellow, where she spent 3.5 years participating in different research projects involving non-invasive brain stimulation in Alzheimer’s Disease and Schizophrenia. She is currently working with Dr. Joffe’s team on various projects. She plans to continue her clinical research career focusing on her main areas of interest, neuropsychiatry and brain gender differences.
Jessica Harder, MD
Dr. Harder is a neuropsychiatrist with an interest in inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and neuropsychiatric disturbance. She obtained her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, completed her residency in psychiatry at the Harvard Longwood training program, and her fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is the principal investigator on a randomized controlled trial of salicylic acid as an augmenting agent for treatment-resistant depression, as well as co-investigator on a trial of an IL-6 receptor antagonist for the treatment of depression. She is currently working with Dr. Joffe on a study of premenstrual inflammatory markers and their association with depression.
Shadab A. Rahman, PhD MPH
Dr. Rahman is a Lead Investigator (Associate Neuroscientist) in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He completed his doctoral training in Physiology at the University of Toronto followed by completion of his postdoctoral training in Sleep Medicine at BWH/HMS and Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. At WHARP, he collaborates with Dr. Joffe on several studies examining the role of sleep disruption on the metabolic and mental health of women during the menopause transition.
Primavera Spagnolo, MD PhD
Primavera A. Spagnolo, MD, PhD is the Associate Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health Research, where she also serves as the Scientific Director of the First.In.Women® Precision Medicine Platform. In addition, she is a Lead Investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she directs the Laboratory of Sex Informed Translational Neuroscience. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Spagnolo received her medical degree and her PhD in neuropsychopharmacology at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and completed her postdoctoral training at NIAAA/ NIH in 2018. Her research focuses on uncovering sex specific and sex differentiating mechanisms underlying stress and trauma related psychiatric disorders, with the goal of identifying novel disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
As Associate Director of the Connors Center, Dr. Spagnolo’s work focuses on improving women’s representation in clinical trials and identifying novel strategies facilitating the inclusion of female specific data in clinical research. She has received numerous research grants and several awards, including an Excellence in Research Award from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Liane Hunter, MD, PhD
Dr. Hunter is a Fellow in the Neurology/Neuropsychology Fellowship Program within the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Hunter completed her medical and doctorate degrees at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Hunter seeks to utilize her prior experience with neuroimaging and advanced statistical analyses, as well as her knowledge of the biological mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases, to understand sex-specific outcomes in for brain-related disorders. In addition to her work within WHARP, she also conducts her own research and provides support to the Connors Center.
Clara O. Sailer, MD, PhD, MSc
Dr. Sailer is a Clinical and Research Fellow in the Endocrinology Fellowship Program within the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Dr. Sailer earned her medical and doctoral degrees at the University and University Hospital Basel in Switzerland and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Neuroendocrine Division at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She subsequently completed her residency in Internal Medicine at BWH.
Her research initially focused on neuroendocrine complications of the polyuria-polydipsia syndrome and eating disorders. More recently, her work has shifted toward investigating cardiometabolic complications of menopause. She currently collaborates with Dr. Hadine Joffe at BWH and Dr. Karen Miller at MGH.
Aleta Wiley, MPH MSc – Senior Program Manager
Aleta joined the Women’s Hormones and Aging Research Program in late 2015 as the Project Manager. She completed her MPH in Epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health, her MS in Conservation Biology & Sustainability from the University of Maryland-College Park, and her BA in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Before joining WHARP, Aleta worked for the Nurses’ Health Study at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and for the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. She also completed a practicum at Slone Epidemiology Center for PRESTO, an Internet-based fertility cohort study. She is interested in studying women’s mental and reproductive health and investigating quality-of-life outcomes for women across the lifespan.
Monica Bennett Fonseka, MA – Research Specialist
Monica Bennett Fonseka is a Research Specialist in the Psychiatry department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They graduated from McGill University with a B.A.Sc. in Cognitive Science in 2010, then earned their M.S. in Psychology, specializing in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics, from UMass Amherst in 2015. Monica has worked in psychiatric and neuroimaging research since joining the department in 2014. Their primary research interests include the intersection of cognition, psychiatry, and neuroscience, in addition to the study of reading and executive function, and related disorders such as dyslexia and ADHD.
Doruntina Fida, MPH – Senior Research Coordinator
Doruntina Fida graduated from Princeton University in 2021 with a degree in Anthropology and a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. In May of 2023, she graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill with a master’s degree in public health. During her time at UNC-CH, she was a research coordinator for the Department of Pediatrics within UNC’s School of Medicine, where she helped to coordinate a training for pediatric residents on pregnancy options counseling. Additionally, she worked with CLOUDi at UNC Hospitals to develop and implement a standardized training protocol for screening and referring prenatal patients with (or at risk for) substance use disorders. Doruntina grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and enjoys exploring local coffee shops in the Boston area, baking, and ballet. She plans to pursue a career in medicine in the future.
Hannah Kim, BA, MS – Clinical Research Coordinator
Hannah Kim graduated from Dartmouth College in June 2023 with a BA in Biomedical Engineering and Music. At Dartmouth, she was involved in protein engineering research, the Eichler Fellowship for Health Care Leaders, and the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra as a cellist. She also interned at the Aging Resources Center at DHMC, creating and teaching a class about music. In her free time, she enjoys photography, cooking, and attending art museums. She aims to pursue a career in medicine with a particular interest in the intersection of healthcare and the humanities.
Margo Nathan, MD
Dr. Nathan joined the Women’s Hormone and Aging Research Program in July 2016 as a clinical and research fellow and as junior faculty in July 2017. Prior to this she completed medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and her adult Psychiatry Residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. During her last year she served as chief resident. She has a particular interest in mood disorders and is hoping to pursue a career in academic psychiatry.
Avivia Cohn, MD
Dr. Cohn is an endocrinologist with an interest in women’s health and endocrinology. She completed her medical degree and internal medicine residency at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and her fellowship training in endocrinology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Cohn has been a part of WHARP since her fellowship where she studied the changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis in relation to the hormonal and sleep changes characteristic of menopause under the mentorship of Dr. Joffe. Since graduating, Dr. Cohn is continuing to pursue her research interests in women’s aging and endocrinology at WHARP.
Suzanne Bertisch, MD MPH
– Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Matt Bianchi, MD PhD
– Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Janet Carpenter, PhD, RN
– Science of Nursing Care, Indiana University
Lee Cohen, MD
– Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sybil Crawford, PhD
– University of Massachusetts Medical School
Marlene Freeman, MD
– Massachusetts General Hospital
Judy Garber, MD MPH
– Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Janet Hall, MD
– Department of Reproductive Endocrinology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Ursula Kaiser, MD
– Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Elizabeth Klerman, MD PhD
– Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Pamela Mahon, PhD
– Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Erica Mayer, MD MPH
– Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Paul Newhouse, MD
– Director, Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Ann Partridge, MD MPH
– Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Hanneke Poort, PhD
– Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Shadab Rahman, PhD MPH
– Instructor, Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Deborah Schrag, MD MPH
– Chief, Division of Population Sciences, Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Frank Scheer, PhD
– Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
J. Andrew Taylor, PhD
– Director, Cardiovascular Laboratory, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Rebecca Thurston, PhD
– Director, Women’s Biobehavioral Health Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh
John Winkelman, MD PhD
– Chief, Sleep Disorders Clinical Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
Miryam Yusufov, PhD
– Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Eric Zhou, PhD
– Psychologist, Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences
– The SCORE program serves as a national resource for translational research, at multiple levels of analysis, to identify and better understand the role of biological sex differences on the health of women. The program is made up of NIH-supported Centers of Excellence which are vital hubs for research on sex that also provide pilot funding, training, and education. SCORE investigators provide leadership in the development and promotion of standards and policies for the consideration of sex as a biological variable (SABV) and sex differences in biomedical research. Identifying the contributions of biological sex can assist in understanding women’s health outcomes, the development of next-generation interventions and medical treatments that may lead to improvements in women’s health.
Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms & Health (MsFLASH)
– MsFLASH is a research group that conducts studies focused on relieving the most common, bothersome symptoms of menopause. MsFLASH’s goal is to find promising treatments for these problems and improve the quality of life and health of midlife women as they age. Since 2008, the MsFLASH network has completed four clinical trials testing seven interventions that involved 1000 women between the ages of 40 and 62 with hot flashes, sleep problems and other menopausal symptoms.
Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN)
– SWAN is a multi-site longitudinal, epidemiologic study designed to examine the health of women during their middle years. The study examines the physical, biological, psychological and social changes during this transitional period. The goal of SWAN’s research is to help scientists, health care providers and women learn how mid-life experiences affect health and quality of life during aging.
Clinical Research Coordinators
- Julie Wilson (2023-2025)
Will begin MD program at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2025 - Emily Sinrod (2022-2024)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Long Island University-Brooklyn in 2024 - Tianyu (Cindy) Luo (2021-2023)
Began MD program at California Northstate University School of Medicine in 2023 - Anna Joseph (2021-2023)
Began MD program at University of Illinois in 2024 - Ellexa Menezes (2021-2023)
Began MA program in clinical psychology at Northwestern Medicine - Ancella Roy (2021-2023)
- Mathena Abramson (2019-2021)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at University of Boston in 2021 - Athena Erickson (2019-2021)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Boston University in 2021 - Elkhansaa Elguenaoui (2019–2021)
- Lauren Finkelstein (2019-2020)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at University of Colorado-Boulder in 2020 - Alina Fein (2018-2019)
Began MSW program at Simmons University in 2019 - Moira Nolan (2018-2019)
- Akanksha Srivastava (2018-2019)
Began MD program at Boston University in 2019 - Julia Russell (2017-2019)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Kansas in 2019 - Kathleen McCormick (2016-2018)
Began PhD program in Human Development at Cornell University in 2019 - Katie Sullivan (2015-2017)
Began MD program at Brown University in 2017 - Julie Camuso (2014-2016)
Began PhD program in Clinical Psychology at the University of Vermont in 2016 - Thania Galvan (2013-2015)
- Semmie Kim (2013-2014)
Research Trainees
- MK Hartigan (2025)
- Juliet Yavas (2025)
- Vandya Goel (2024)
- Trisha Shenoy (2024)
- Nina Kosowsky (2020)
- Sarina Hanfling (2019-2020)
- Katherine Oh (2020)
- (2019)
- Lily Charron (2019)
- Lindsay Walsh, MD candidate (2019)
- Olivia Noe, MD candidate (2019)
- Phoebe Gianis (2017-2018)
- Catharine Hemp (2017)