Conference on the Impact of Journalism on Women's Health

Monday, November 7, "Women's Health: The Press and Public Policy," on the campus of the University of Michigan. The lineup of speakers includes leading (US) experts in the fields of women's health and medical journalism:

- Susan F. Wood, former Director of the Office of Women's Health in US Food and Drug Administration
- Gina Kolata, New York Times science and medicine journalist
- Dr. Kimberleydawn Wisdom, Michigan Surgeon General (the first statewide position of its kind)
- Dr. Vivian Pinn, Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the US National Institutes of Health
- Joanne Silberner, health policy correspondent for National Public Radio (US)
- Myrna Blyth, author, "Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness and Liberalism to the Women of America," former editor-in-chief of Ladies' Home Journal and founding editor-in-chief of MORE magazine,
- Dianne Hales, author of "An Invitation to Health"
- Marcia Inhorn, professor of health behavior and health education at University of Michigan and director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
- Cynthia Pearson, executive director of the US National Women's Health Network and lead author of, "The Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy"
- Joann Ellison Rodgers, author of, "Sex: A Natural History," and director of media relations at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
- Frances M. Visco, president of the US National Breast Cancer Coalition

With a line up like that, the program should be pretty lively. The flyer says, "The idea is to explore how well the important public policy issue of women's health is being explained to the public... The experts and journalists will each be asked how good a job they think they're doing -- and also how well each thinks the other is doing."

The public is invited -- free -- not only to hear the discussion, but also to participate in it.

You can read my notes on what happened next Tuesday!