Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc, has been appointed executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health, effective June 1. She will also be appointed as the Paula A. Johnson Professor in Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School.
The Center, founded in 2002, is committed to the discovery, dissemination, and integration of knowledge on women's health and sex and gender-based differences; applying this knowledge to the delivery of care; and developing the next generation of trainees in women's health research and clinical care.
“Dr. Joffe is deeply passionate about the field of women's health and has made remarkable contributions to research, education and clinical care throughout the course of her career,” said Brigham Health President Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD. “With her depth and breadth of experience, she is uniquely poised to facilitate collaborations that enrich and expand women's health research and strengthen the Brigham's role as a leader in this area nationally and internationally.”
In this role, Joffe will develop a structure for faculty and trainees to forge new ground in women’s health investigation and ensure that research is translatable to patient care and aligned with women's health advocacy priorities. She will also work to establish the Connors Center as a resource to advance and train women's health investigators, who are essential to expanding the field. This includes those who are currently working on women's health research, as well as other investigators who may be able to incorporate some element that is related to women’s health into their existing research.
Joffe came to the Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2013 as a psychiatrist and clinical translational investigator focusing on women's mental health and women's psycho-oncology. Her research focuses on understanding the brain's response to hormonal changes for women, such as during menopause, and for women who are battling breast cancer, and how the brain's response manifests into symptoms that affect quality of life for women. Joffe currently serves as the Department of Psychiatry's vice chair for Research and director of the Division of Women's Mental Health, as well as the director of Psycho-oncology Research. In addition to serving as executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health, Joffe will continue to serve as vice chair of Research in Psychiatry and pursue her own research.
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 residency training at McLean Hospital and a women's mental health fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Joffe succeeds Paula Johnson, MD, MPH, a leader in the field of women's health, who founded the Connors Center in 2002 and currently serves as President of Wellesley College. While a search to replace Johnson was underway, JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, served as interim executive director.
